The Era of small government is over

     With apologies to Bill Clinton, today's post is about the positivity of big government in leveling the playing field for all of us.

     I have maintained for many years that in a time of global mega corporations we need a government with the size and scope to give the average man or woman a say in how the economy works for them.  The flood of new programs proposed by the Biden administration include perhaps the most consequential benefits for parents ever.   Free preschool for 3-4 year old children.   Child care credits and up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave  are also among Biden's ambitious family plan proposals.  As Paul Krugman points out in today's NYT, if this bill is passed and the benefits are widely distributed, repealing them would cause a seismic electoral backlash against Republicans.   Even their arguments against the provisions in the Family Plan are mostly nonsense.

     We need a government run by trusted public servants who can go toe to toe with business interests who would continue the subjugation of the American worker.  Giving workers the ability to nurture and care for their families is an integral part of modern democracies.  It is about time we recognize that indisputable fact.

Say it ain't so, Joe

       I checked one of the blogs I follow on a regular basis for his take on last night's address by president Biden.  With tongue firmly in cheek, he announced "Full Communism is here".   Based on the number of exploding Republican heads, my blogger may be closer to the truth than he imagines.

     Republicans can't seem to get together with a unified criticism of kindly Uncle Joe.   Instead of the mildly crazy gaffe machine he was as Obama's vice president, Joe Biden has been a disciplined, non ideological pragmatist whose solutions to many of the problems we face are not really controversial when the premise for them is examined.   The covid vaccination program is a case in point.   A ruthlessly competent government program will have immunized virtually the entire adult population by the beginning of summer, assuming everyone eligible reports in for their shot.

      Biden is also tackling the problem of income inequality.  No matter what solution is offered, Republicans will try to poke holes in it, so the president is going the full monty.   It may not work , but at least he is trying.  The Democratic party is moving leftward and Biden is following it.  The success or failure  of the various programs he touted last night will very possibly herald the validation or the failure of the American experiment.  I know which outcome I'm rooting for.

Thanks Joe

       The Divine Mrs. M and I received a letter from the IRS yesterday.   Any missive from the Eternal Revenue Service is usually treated with caution even if there is no guilty conscience involved.   However, yesterday's communication was just a reminder from the president we should know the government had dispatched our Covid 19 relief checks and we should be on the lookout for them.   We actually received the credit to our account several weeks ago, but Joe wanted to make sure we knew who was responsible for the largesse.

     On the heels of that message, the local rag ran its obligatory weekly story of how local  businesses are failing to find enough low wage workers, particularly in the hospitality industry.  As usual, the main reasons given include the generous unemployment benefits and stimulus checks which are supposedly turning workers "skeptical" of low paid work with few or no benefits.   There were no quotes from businessmen or women saying they were offering more money.  Just whining about how the government is making it hard for them to hire desperate people with no alternative for low wages.

     The summer season is upon us and businesses in the North Country depend on this time of year for much of their annual income.   It may behoove them to find out what wage will shake loose some new workers.   Thanks again Joe.

Numbers

        The census numbers are out, and both sides of the political divide are in "the glass is half full" stage of analyzing what it means.   Republicans can point to 2 more seats in Texas for the US House along with gains in Florida and North Carolina and say they are in the driver's seat.  Democrats can point to the same numbers and say they are not as good as they could have been and besides they consolidated gains in Colorado and Oregon.

       Demographics are definitely on the Dems side.  Due to an overwhelming advantage in state legislatures set to draw the lines on congressional districts later this year, the GOP  can hold back the electoral tide for another decade.  However, particularly egregious gerrymandering will result in lawsuits and migration of liberals to the sunbelt will continue to make even once solid Republican areas competitive.

      What counts now is enacting president Biden's legislative agenda and appealing to crossover voters who will be affected positively by Democratic spending to address long term American infrastructure and the graying of the population and its need for elder care.   These are the challenges facing both political parties in the near and long term.

Our polarized political world

        The alternate title for this post might be "How I stopped worrying and learned to love the gridlock".   Either describes the political situation we are currently living with.   However, this state of affairs is an anomaly in the democracies of the west.  In the parliamentary systems of western Europe, when a government is formed by the party with the most seats, its agenda is usually enacted against the wishes of the opposition parties.  This is the essence of majoritarian democracy.

      In the US system, because it was designed in the absence of political parties, minorities have many avenues to restrain and thwart the will of the majority.   Today's GOP has used the vagaries of the republican form of government to torment Democrats for the last 40 years.  This has finally become intolerable due to the existential threat of climate change and at least one aspect of Republican obstructionism, the filibuster in the Senate, has got to go.  The will of the majority is vital to the continuation of our present system.

Time to do something

       Fortunately, wind and solar power costs have dropped to the point they are cheaper than any other source.   Natural gas may be cheaper, until you factor in the environmental cost of fracking.  This has made it possible for the administration to plan cutting emissions by 50% in the next 10 years.

     Republicans are already pouring cold water on any talk of a bi-partisan plan.  Most of them don't even agree climate change is a thing.  Political solutions are therefore out of the question.   Lucky for us, Joe Biden knows this and will concentrate on executive actions which will keep our transition to clean energy on course.  Assuming Joe Manchin's posterior is kissed lovingly enough to secure his vote on the Americans Job Act, it will set in motion a nearly unstoppable change toward environmental justice.  Whether that will be enough to secure a livable future for the human race is questionable.  However, it would appear to be our only chance.

"He did what he was trained to do"

       Reacting to the shooting of a 16 year old brandishing a steak knife and threatening another young woman, one pundit opined the officer "did what he was trained to do".   The incident happened in Columbus, Ohio in what appears to be a black neighborhood.  From the time the officers pulled up to the scene to the shooting of Ma'Kiah Bryant consumed a chaotic 12 seconds.  The officer fired 4 shots and killed Ms. Bryant.  

       Would the same thing have happened if a 16 year old white girl was in Ms. Bryant's position?   That this question even needs to be asked is a tell.   I would be willing to bet the white girl would have been disarmed by the officer before the use of deadly force.   

      Police academies across the country have been turning out warriors instead of peace officers.  Instead of "serve and protect" the public, most officers have an "us against them" mentality that leaves an average of 3 citizens dead every day from interactions with police.  The system needs a major overhaul.

My take

       As I'm sure everyone in the country knows by now, Derek Chauvin has been found guilty of 2nd and 3rd degree murder and manslaughter in the killing of George Floyd last May in Minneapolis.  While a large majority of Americans are pleased and relieved by the verdict, a small and vocal minority will refuse to believe justice was served.   These people are expressing disappointment the verdicts did not go the other way.  Not because they think Chauvin was innocent, but because they hoped a verdict of innocence would stir an outbreak of lawless violence in cities across the country.  They are not interested in a just society, but in a society just for them.   

The Old White Guy theory

       In today's NYT, Paul Krugman states pretty baldly what I have been saying ever since Joe Biden's candidacy for the Democratic party's nomination for president took off.   Even in 21st century America, there is no candidate like an old white guy.   Left, right and center may not agree on much, but pluralities of all political persuasions agree that older white men unite rather than divide the country.

      Krugman goes on to say the present day Democratic party is comfortable in its own skin and is acting like many center left parties around the world.  However, I doubt Krugman's analysis could stand the emergence of a truly left candidate or a woman or POC as president.  Obama had high personal approval across much of the electorate, but Republicans were able to demonize his policies, specifically, the ACA.

      Biden's Covid relief bill was more than twice what  Obama's relief bill for the Great Recession and has proven wildly popular.  I have a feeling president Harris would have fared poorly if she had presented the same plan as Biden.   She probably wouldn't have been able to muster all 50 Democrats in the Senate.  Racism is a powerful drug!  

       Despite the progress the country has made over the past decade, we are still far from acceptance of people who don't fit the image of the putative majority.   Unfortunately, we are stuck with old white dudes.  We are lucky Biden better represents most of us than the former guy.

April showers, etc.

      We finally got some much needed rain in the North Country, but of course, once a particular mode of weather starts it often overstays its welcome.   In addition, we now have several inches of snow in the forecast for midweek.   All the landscapers who put their snowplows away and finished sharpening their lawnmower blades will debate the utility of changing back in the face of a 90% chance of 3-5 inches of the white stuff.  Ah, spring in upstate New York!

The vaccination debate

     It seems a fairly large minority of Americans are skeptical of the present lineup of Covid vaccines and are refusing the jabs.  A fairly large majority of said skeptics are Republicans, despite the fact the medicines were developed under tRump's watch.   What to do?

     A modest suggestion would be making vaccination certificates mandatory for everyone over the age of 12.  In order to dine indoors, ride public transportation or attend sporting events or concerts, you would have to show proof of vaccination.  The same for international travel.  People unwilling to remain in isolation or get the shots would be subject to a fine each time they violated the law.  Easy peasy.

You can't make this stuff up

       If you were writing a cop show and the script included a police killing in a small city adjacent to a larger city hosting  perhaps the most publicized trial of an officer accused of homicide you would understandably be pressed to show how stupid the idea was.  Every police chief within hundreds of miles of Minneapolis should have cautioned his officers to use extreme caution when encountering young black men during routine traffic stops.

       So instead, we have three cops approaching a smallish 20 year old black man in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center as if he just pulled off the heist of the century instead of having an expired license tag.   When a 26 year veteran makes the inexplicable error of mistaking her service gun for a tazer, the stupidity elevates to tragedy as the young man is killed.   This has led to four nights of riots and protests in the town and flareups across the nation.   Until we confront the racism endemic in the US, being killed for being black will continue to roil our society.

The long and winding road

       So, the US is finally withdrawing from Afghanistan.  It sounds too good to be true and thus, it probably is.  I don't mean president Biden is lying too us.  Our troops will be coming home by Sept. 11 amid much pomp and a fair amount of naysaying by pundits and supporters of the military industrial complex.   It is fair to ask, however if all Americans involved in the war effort are coming home.  This refers to the thousands of private military contractors who literally outnumber our troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

     A private military force made up primarily of ex US soldiers under the command of shadowy outfits like the one headed by Eric Prince and costing hundreds of millions of dollars per year is a real and troubling possibility.   We need vigorous oversight of the money the Pentagon is spending in Afghanistan and other countries in that area.  

     The Afghanistan war has been a 2 trillion dollar fiasco which once again shows that nation building in an area not ready for western style democracy is for the most part a waste of blood and treasure.  We must start the process of closing most of the 800 bases we maintain around the world and wind up the American Empire's presence in countries who neither need or want us.

Fearing the other

     Another black man was shot, supposedly by accident, in Minnesota on Sunday.   This follows the graphic video taken in December of 2 Virginia officers harassing a black army officer over a minor traffic infraction.   What causes these incidents?

      If we are honest with ourselves, the answer to the above question is easy.   Most whites fear the "other", and a scary black man is the stuff of nightmares to many.  I suppose this fear dates to the antebellum South, when in many areas, black slaves outnumbered whites and they were kept in servitude by terror.   On rare occasions, the slaves would rise up and kill whites before being subdued by overwhelming force.   The racial memory of these uprisings is a powerful thing and informs the prejudices of many whites in the present.

     In the short term there is little we can do.  This nation is defacto segregated by race and as long as this is the norm, blacks and whites will fear and hate each other.    

White Replacement

      A Japanese man, Hideki Matsuyama, won the Masters golf tournament yesterday.   He beat a constellation of mostly white men and will be a big contributor to Tucker Carlson's continuing dyspepsia concerning "white replacement".

      Ever since the founding of the US, the majority of white Americans have obsessed over their shrinking majority.   From the anti-immigrant Know Nothing movement in the 1840's to the several iterations of the Ku Klux Klan, anyone who doesn't look like the ideal of a blond haired, blue eyed Anglo, Germanic or Nordic type is fair game for the Carlsons of the world.   Matsuyama's victory is just another potential grievance.

      A white man is on trial for casually killing a black man in Minnesota last year.  Last night, another black man was killed by white officers in a nearby town, sparking a riot by outraged citizens.  White supremacy is under attack and it looks like the majoritie's anxieties will not be calmed anytime soon.

In search of wokeness

        Somehow in all the headlines generated  by the supposed rift between the GOP and corporations I didn't see any news about  Delta Airlines or Coca Cola proposing a profit sharing arrangement with their workers.  I also didn't hear Jeff Bezos encouraging his workers to unionize with the attendant calls for better working conditions.   Despite the handwringing and warnings from Mitch McConnell, it still looks a lot like business as usual in corporate boardrooms across the country.

        The US and the world is rapidly coming to a crossroads in the clash between capital and labor.   Thanks to a 40 year campaign by conservatives and their corporate allies, the share of the fruits of capitalism has increasingly flowed to a smaller and smaller number of people and entities.   Continued automation fueled by the rise of AI (artificial intelligence) has rendered more and more jobs redundant.  As white collar jobs fall prey to this coming automation, an even greater number of workers will be without the job that gives so much meaning to so many.   That is the real challenge facing corporations and citizens around the world.   

"Fewer, but better voters"

      So this is what is coming next in Republican voter suppression.   Fewer, but better voters is the call by the National Review's Kevin Williamson.   63 years after the magazine's founder William F. Buckley called for southern whites to maintain their electoral monopoly over blacks by any means necessary, Williamson advocates for passing whatever laws are needed to discourage blacks, working class whites, women and any others who might consider voting Democratic and encourage older, white, rural voters who overwhelmingly vote Republican to get to the polls on election day.

     Absentee voting, mail voting, early voting and other democratic methods of encouraging the most people to participate in our democracy are to be shunned.   Long lines, poorly maintained voting equipment and restricted hours of voting is the new Jim Crow.  We must oppose all these efforts to disenfranchise our fellow citizens.

Hypocrisy, thy name is...

      Mitch McConnell plumbs new depths of bad faith nearly every time he opens his mouth.   Warning corporations to stop being so political in the wake of nearly universal condemnation of Georgia's new, restrictive voting law, McConnell in the same breath also said the same corporations should keep the contributions to the GOP coming.

     Now, the contrarians are wondering why the Masters golf tournament is not being cancelled, moved or otherwise curtailed as part of the protest.  The short answer is there are 30 Major league baseball clubs scattered around the country.  There is only one Masters tournament.  It is owned by a company which only recently admitted blacks as members.   There is no way on Dog's green earth the management of the club will criticize the Georgia legislature for restrictive voting laws.

     Yes, some number of Atlantans will miss a paycheck or two due to the movement of the All Star game.  But very little of the 100 million dollars the city is supposed to gain will flow to ordinary city dwellers.  As with any social protest, there will be economic fallout.  Let's cut the hypocrisy to a minimum.

Vaccine Idiocy

       Despite the undeniable success of the Biden Administration's vaccine rollout with over 63,000,000 people now completely immunized against Covid 19, there remains a troubling holdout which may ultimately doom the goal of herd immunity to the virus.  I am referring to the vast majority of evangelical Christians who are refusing the opportunity to receive the vaccine.   

      Some leaders in the movement have called for their followers to get the shot or shots, but many rank and file evangelicals are rejecting the advice for reasons ranging from "the vaccine is not the savior" to the rumor the vaccines use material from aborted fetuses (They do not), to exhortations that proper nutrition will keep you safe (it will not).

     Unless their is a rapid change of heart in Jesus land, many millions of our fellow citizens will delay the reopening of our country and make it less safe for those of us who have been immunized.

The Easter calm

      Both the left and the right seem to have declared a defacto truce for the Easter holiday.  People are out and about in many areas of the country and many are tired of the non-stop political combat the media keeps reporting.  Even the coverage of the George Floyd trial was scaled back over the weekend.

     Here in the north country we celebrated the first signs of spring, including an Easter Egg hunt for the grandkids and our first family dinner at my eldest daughter's house.  Thanks to all of us getting our 2 doses of vaccine we were a relatively safe island in the Covid sea.  

     Thanks to more larges scale vaccination centers popping up around New York, the site in Plattsburgh is seeing a drop off in jabs over the last couple of weeks, even as the national rate continues to soar.   From a high point of more than 2000 shots per day a few weeks ago, only around 800 people showed up yesterday for immunization.   Nationally, more than 4 million people were treated yesterday, so steady progress is being made.   Hopefully, the Easter calm will continue as the nation catches its collective breath.

Time to put up or shut up

        It looks like "infrastructure week" will be with us this year as Joe Biden rolled out a plan to spend more than 2 trillion dollars on crumbling roads and bridges, broadband expansion, electrical grid security and many other green energy initiatives.   Predictably, the GOP criticized the Democrats plan to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations to pay for it.  On the other side, AOC and progressives say the plan is not nearly big enough to address many problems and are calling for up to 5 times the funding Biden's plan allows.

      Our local paper featured the usual suspects; both Republicans and Democrats calling the plan a necessary initiative, but carping about the price.   Our local congresscritter, Elise Stefanik was not quoted, probably because she will be expected to echo the national GOP's opposition to anything that benefits the citizenry although she also knows the plan will be extremely popular with most of her constituents.

   Many prosperous countries around the world run much larger deficits in order to pay for public works.  Japan's debt is proportionately many times ours, yet the Japanese continue to be able to borrow at even better rates than we do.   The argument our descendants will be forced to pay for our spending spree is outdated.   Governments are not like families who are constrained by an inability to control their currency.   On a timescale of hundreds of years, today's national debt is insignificant.   The sooner we get our heads around that, the sooner we can address our pressing needs.

Vaccination passports to the rescue

       While it may never happen, the institution of vaccination passports could be the most important tool in our fight against Covid 19 and other pandemics in the future.   Because of the efficacy of the present vaccines, once you have received them, your chances of contracting or transmitting the virus fall to virtually zero.   Having a document which proves you are not a carrier of the virus could very well lead to a quick reopening of society.

      Unfortunately, the same people who would love to force every potential voter to obtain an I.D. are now braying that somehow requiring a vaccine I.D. is an infringement on some sacred right.  That these people are overwhelmingly white and Republican shows how weak the argument is.  The paramount duty of a government of the people is to protect the health and well being of those people.   A vaccination document is a no brainer.