When They Stop Believing

October 2021

Sadly, I’ve lost so much emotion for my country, its culture, and society. While I hope to recover, I’ve basically become numb after watching the uncivil discourse that now passes for the norm, a redefinition of what is truth, destruction of once beautiful cities where elected leaders either fear the criminal element or the ideologically most aggressive, selective censorship, lack of respect and cooperation with the office of the CinC (no matter who sits behind the Resolute Desk), felonious immunity for the chosen few plying their trade within The Swamp, certifiable lawlessness for certain political/economic/racial classes, judicial activism and overreach, and the embarrassing national theater we once knew as the United States Congress.

What has happened to America … how and why did it happen so fast? There are 80 million people that would love to blame one guy with a fake tan but if they had a shred of honesty, they’d have to confess it started a long time before his trip down the escalator.  

Regrettably, the American future doesn’t appear to have any silver bullets. There is no single person on the horizon who could reunite the two sides that have drifted so far apart. No post-depression FDR, no post-Nixon era Gerald Ford, no post-Carter era Ronald Reagan with the capacity to bring the two sides together. But more importantly than a single person are the Americans that have chosen a societal side to which they have become married. Whether or not it’s an ‘until death do us part’ relationship is to be seen. The courts, the next generation, the Beltway, virtually all forms of media, government entities and their leadership, even our service academies have doubled down on a socially, politically, and constitutionally destructive ideology to the point where they have indoctrinated a legion of followers.

When citizens start to believe that they have been rendered impotent in terms of their civic participation and stop having a reason to believe the information they’re being fed – they will become silent, disengage, disconnect, and simply go about their life in a compliant manner knowing they have absolutely no say in any outcome within their existence. We’ve watched this life and world view play out in every country that has gone in this direction; USSR and their satellite states, China, North Korea, Venezuela, Iran, Iraq formerly, and every Third World country power structure that knows they can get away with anything because their citizens have become numb.

Where do you go for the truth? I’ve asked that question a lot. There was a time when I counted on a variety of semi-trusted sources from which to assimilate info, apply various filters, and parse out good from the bad. Regrettably, most have either been co-opted by a specific ideology, censored, canceled, or simply silenced leaving those that actually still care with even fewer places to garner reliable information. This applies to state and federal authorities, corporate leaders, once respected institutions, government officials, and the litany of media outlets.

Why is this important enough to write about? Because finding trustworthy and truthful information provides the foundation for our basic system of beliefs. This belief system literally becomes the baseline for who we are; our core values of right and wrong, good and bad, and our personal view of reality that provides a foundation for how we act on a daily basis. When segments within that system break down it throws our entire world into an area of doubt. Once we’re told that A isn’t true the next question is; what else isn’t true? It only takes one deliberate lie, obfuscation of facts, or exaggeration of details for honest people to build filters into who and how they receive information.

We’re at an inflection point in the United States in terms of the way American citizens view culture and our uniquely American way of life. So many things that were ingrained into our basic system of beliefs which we used to count as trustworthy, resolute, and unspoiled are now questioned on a daily basis as we witness the very history of this country being rewritten and taught in our public schools by those who didn’t like the original version of documented evidence, testimony, and long-held fact.

What’s left to actually believe in? Apparently, I am not alone as I find more and more people are harboring this exact sentiment and it’s not confined to one ideological side or another. It speaks directly to the American way of life. Obviously, the media outlets across the board head the list of entities I no longer have confidence in or fully believe. They are followed in close second by state and federal politicians and virtually every government agency that takes its lead from inside the Beltway. My information highway now has countless and very fine mesh truth filters.

What is so sad is that we’ve done this to ourselves in the name of progress, technology, need for ratings and the 24-hour news cycle, and most decidedly, ideology. What’s gone by the wayside, what used to be revered? The truth.

The famous quip attributed to Chico Marx, “… who ya gonna believe, me or your lying eyes?” is especially apropos to the current American sociopolitical environment. It’s a perfect storm where government agencies and their operatives, mass media, and big tech do everything in their power to convince the masses looking for truth, importance, and relevance that they are the ultimate arbiters of what one should read, watch, consume, and believe.

It’s become a war for your (and my) mind. I’m hopeful in one area, however, that Americans are smarter than that and at some point, will realize how they’re being played.

Another Ignominious Departure

August 2021

Our country didn’t deserve this. Our soldiers and their families didn’t serve this, neither did our allies or those Afghan nationals who supported us for the last 20 years.

Our departure from Afghanistan was inevitable. After 20 years it’s taken the same toll on the US as it did on Russia before they stopped beating their heads against the wall and retreated back to the Motherland in 1998. Most Americans somewhat understood the reasoning in 2002 for us to go there in the first place but this reasoning had evaporated a decade later. The end game was nebulous and never assured nor was it properly explained to the American people as time went on let alone delineated in milestones for what counted as success. What most Americans only knew about Afghanistan was that it was a god-forsaken wasteland of a country on the other side of the world best known for its terrorism sanctuary, opium production and medieval warlord society.

• 

  Saigon 1975

• 

  Afghanistan 2021

From the outset, the US realistically had virtually zero chance of success in a nation-building effort or whatever it was we were doing over there. Sure, we made some allies, kept the violence to a dull roar, exposed some bad guys, and merely sedated the enemy. The problem is the enemy has played this game on their home turf for centuries, they are very patient, and knew from the start that all they had to do was wait for their time. They also knew Americans would eventually grow tired, restless, and would demand their politicians find another way to spend their money.

Their century’s old strategy beat the most capable and technologically advanced military in the world. Lives lost, bodies and minds irreparably damaged, and trillions of dollars is a terrible report card for our effort.

This is not new stuff. Sun Tzu (circa 500 B.C.) wrote:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” (emphasis added)

It doesn’t take much hindsight to recognize the intel specialists, strategists and tacticians sitting in their air-conditioned Pentagon conference room never really knew the core of the enemy in Afghanistan; Taliban or Al Qaida, their culture, their history, and how they succeeded in previous battles. Sadly, anecdotal evidence will show the soldiers on the ground knew the real story but their unique understanding and perspective became perverted as it was passed up the chain to DC where it was edited to fit the changing political narrative. Over the last 9 months our military leaders have concentrated more on gender, equity, and diversity in the military when they should have been focusing on the peaceful and successful transition out of harm’s way.

I simply wish those Americans who reflexively say to a veteran, “Thank you for your service” really understood the sacrifice made by our soldiers that got us to the point of futility where we watch helicopters pulling Americans off the roof of the US embassy – again. If you’re younger than 45 years old you may not even know we’ve been down this exact same road before when we left Viet Nam.

The ruling class, politicians and their advisors, along with factions within the intel community are solely to blame for what has transpired in Afghanistan over the last 30 days. As well, any military brass that advised the course of action taken by the administration needs to be exposed. Our officers and enlisted men and women deserve much better.

The experts say ….

Commander in Chief Biden is in a tough spot but he’s the one that put himself there. He and his team will likely try, but they cannot be allowed to cast this epic failure of leadership, policy, and decision-making on his predecessor.

I am in the camp of those who thought it was past time to terminate our Afghan policy and applauded President Trump for beginning the process despite the warnings and abject haranguing he took from the professionals at the Pentagon. There was a plan in place on January 20, 2021. Trump and Secretary of State Pompeo had given Afghan leaders and warlords distinct milestones for the process and consequences that awaited for violating the terms of retreat and security. The Biden team disregarded everything and did it their own way. It was their right to do but as it turned out, it was a terrible decision of epic proportion.

Former Defense Secretary under President Barack Obama, William Gates once said of Joe Biden “…he’s been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.” Afghanistan in August 2021 pretty much solidifies that assertion.

It was another American ignominious departure and while we’ll survive as a nation there needs to be an accounting for this disastrous chain of events. Pay attention Americans, the smartest guys in the room are making some pretty poor decisions.

Close the Book on Covid

July 2021

Let’s come to an agreement that it’s time to close the book on Covid-19. It was a very bad virus of unknown origin although even moderately functioning minds have a pretty good idea from whence it came. Prior to the vaccines becoming available to everyone over the age of 12 in the US population I reserved a great deal of compassion for the families of those that succumbed to this virus strain; especially in the early days when we had no idea what we were dealing with. The reported death toll was far too large, but even those numbers have been in serious question based on pretty reliable anecdotal evidence to the contrary.

The front-line workers deserve our gratitude and respect for what they accomplished: the immunology researchers who studied the virus and developed the vaccine, medical professionals who worked tirelessly in the trenches, and first responders who put themselves in harm’s way not knowing the ramifications. Thank you, times 10.

With all that said; it is over. But some in our midst try desperately to cling to what was 2020.

credit: keepcalmandposters.com

Regrettably what we’re now seeing in American society is an event postscript as people in all levels of society who were given extramural power and authority in a crisis slowly see their stature and position go back to their original shape. Many took the opportunity to scare, scold, and preach instead of providing encouragement from a position of optimism. Now we watch them cling to the way it was for the last 16 months when anything they said was treated as gospel. Many celebrated medical professionals, immunologists, journalists, panic porn purveyors, governors, mayors, bureaucratic functionaries, et al had the world on their own little string. Their string doesn’t hold much weight anymore. They’ll continue to vainly try to keep it going with an ongoing global body count, news of some emerging mutant virus strains, or maybe an isolated report of rising positivity rates in some county you’ve never heard of. But, we’re onto them.

The disease experts from the alphabet medical mafia CDC, NIH, WHO, and their spokespeople had lost the confidence of rational Americans by the Fall of 2020. We stopped listening to them months ago. The ones we were told to revere had had their 15 minutes of fame but simply refused to move on either because they loved the spotlight or were told concurrently by an insulated group that they were beloved and their message was still important. Maybe it was both.

So here we are in 2021. Our once booming economy begins a shaky recovery mode under new management that appears misguided when dealing with the economy of capitalism and what businesses require to operate. Commercial enterprises are experiencing a labor shortage not because the workers aren’t available, but because our tax dollars continue to be used as a codicil for them to stay home.

In many states our school age kids lost ground in the areas of education and socialization. Whole sections of our stick and mortar commercial economy were shuttered. A drive through the retail center of any major city will verify this point. Suicides and drug overdose rates are through the roof as the Covid restrictions and imposed isolation became the worst enemy of someone already in an emotional hole.

Forget the incessant partisan political posturing and rhetoric; its white noise. President Trump and Operation Warp Speed team did an incredible job of bringing vaccines to the marketplace in record time while setting the initial stage to deliver it to the population. President Biden and his teams at HHS along with private industry have done an equally admirable job in delivering it to the masses.  As of this date over 68% of the US population has had at least one dose. We’ve reached the point where several of the large vaccination complexes and mobile facilities have begun to draw down their efforts as the supplies of vaccine has eclipsed demand. This is a great milestone for America for which we should celebrate. For some however, this victory is just not enough as the newest social divide is between those vaccinated and the staunch ‘non-vaxer’s’.

The persistent media coaxing, governmental incentive give-away programs to encourage the vaccine averse, and the “let’s be safe” social memes are feckless efforts as they relate to our health decisions. Americans cannot allow the virus to be the go-to cudgel dictating how we live our lives. 

 … We’ve reached the point where several of the large vaccination complexes and mobile facilities have begun to draw down their efforts as the supplies of vaccines have eclipsed demand. Everyone has had an opportunity …The decision to get vaccinated or not must become an element of personal responsibility wherein everyone gets to make that choice for themselves….

This is the whole concept behind social liberties, citizenship in America, and taking personal responsibility for your own decisions and actions.’

Personal Responsibility

The decision to get vaccinated or not must become an element of personal responsibility wherein everyone gets to make that choice for themselves. If you believe the science (isn’t that what we’ve been implored to trust) then it should be the guiding principle in terms of decision making and progressing on with our lives. I expect the daily recitation on mainstream media of death counts will continue but why should anyone care? If you believe the science and have been vaccinated, no problem, right? You’re safe. If you made the personal decision to not get vaccinated for whatever reason and you become symptomatic with Covid – it’s on you! This is the whole concept behind social liberties, citizenship in America, and taking personal responsibility for your own decisions and actions. How much compassion do you have for someone injured in a car accident only to find out they were not wearing a seatbelt or were driving under the influence? Personal responsibility.

But somewhere along the line those two words; Personal Responsibility collided with the attitude that one can do whatever one wants to do – without risk or consequence and with the added benefit that society will somehow find compassion for you despite your poor choices. Nah, it doesn’t work that way!

The mask issue? I really don’t care if you wear one or not. Either you’re; A. exercising a sense of personal responsibility because you made the decision to opt out of the vaccination program for whatever reason (that’s yours to make), B. you’ve had the vaccine and simply don’t understand the science or the math behind statistics, or C. you’re making a socio-political statement of absolutely no value to anyone besides yourself.   

Our society will eventually heal from the effects of Covid not because of any government or legislative action but because the American people are resilient enough to forge their way forward. Let’s hope our civic, state, national leaders, as well as our business leaders know enough about human nature to take a lesson in sanity from those of us actually living life, not fearing it. 

MEGA – Make Elections Great Again

Do we have that much time on our hands that we have to devise hacks, design creative systems, develop new technology, or spend more taxpayer money in order to make everything easier? To what end? So we end up with more time on our hands? Simpler, faster, more convenience and efficiency are all worthy goals but should it apply to absolutely everything in our society? Maybe, but not for everything in life. Voting happens to be one of those things that I believe should not be made ‘easy’.

Human nature teaches us that when something becomes increasingly easier over time, we tend to not pay it the importance it deserves or a certain diligence required to attend to it.

Fifty states make their own rules designating dates and deadlines for their documented citizens to register and vote. In my view, it’s a minor downside of Federalism. For most elections this happens on the first Tuesday in November. Okay so far. Special absentee voting rules are made to accommodate voters who know in advance that they will not be present to vote at their designated voting station. Becoming a little more complex but still good because one doesn’t have to know the rules of all 50 states, just the ones applicable to where they are registered.

It’s here where we started to go off the rails in terms of ease and efficiency as the introduction of expanded registration deadlines and methods, ever changing election day protocols, and voting methods have muddied the water for voters of every demographic. Add in Ranked Choice voting and your voice doesn’t mean much anymore. Interestingly enough, most of the complication of a straight forward process rose out of making it easier and more inclusive.

It’s ironic we hear phrases that connote ‘voter suppression’ and the need for more inclusion used more often these days in the era of easy voting. While we could also throw in the health safety excuse for changes in voting protocol it is presumed Covid will soon be a page in history – but don’t expect the changes made under this guise to be as transitory.

The obvious question to ask for people like me with a basic intelligence is; If we continue to go to great lengths to assure everyone has easier access to exercise their right to vote, who exactly in 2021 is being suppressed at the ballot box? Is it a basic voter intelligence issue, an elementary understanding of the rules that apply, or possibly a communication deficit? Is this an inner-city problem or a rural America conundrum? Either way it denigrates the exact persons it tries to address.

The 13th Federal Holiday?

The persistent use of the term ‘voter suppression’ leading up to the 2020 election followed by Georgia’s special election in January 2021 has become a fashionable trigger. The way media outlets played it left one assuming that there is still be a nationwide racial issue as if we still lived in the 1960’s. I, for one think this does an incredible disservice to every non-white person who is eligible to vote as it assumes they aren’t smart enough to access the system because it still remains way too complicated after all the efforts to make it … easy. I reject this, totally. Pandering is a kind way to describe this tactic.

So how does one make the system any easier so as to be effective? By making it more difficult. In doing so it shifts the message from ‘ease and convenience’ to ‘important enough to make the effort’.

1.  Limit the length of early voting. Currently there are provisions in many states to cast a ballot up to 45 days early. Alabama tops that figure at 55 days.

2. Eliminate unsolicited mass mail-in voting. Currently, there are five states that mail ballots to ‘a listed address’ for every registered voter on the voter rolls (dead or alive, in-residence or relocated). This elimination of mail-in voting does not apply to absentee ballot provisions where a formal request is delivered to the local election official by the published deadline.

3. Eliminate unmonitored, unsecured public ballot drop boxes.

4. In person voting limited to one 24-hour period across all 50 states, District of Columbia, and US Territories. This would require more voting stations, better technology, and additional protocols to provide adequate and equal access throughout the 24-hour period. Some districts may require up to 36 hours.

5. To accommodate #3. requires election day to be a Federal Holiday, 1^st Tuesday in November. Schools, banks, businesses, bars, Federal services, etc. only open and operating for a short period, e.g. 9-12 a.m. Emergency services only. Add it to the list of Christmas and Thanksgiving. It’s that important. One day a year the focus should be on exercising your right to vote; not retail.

6. A voter arriving to accept a ballot on which to cast a vote must show a government issued photo ID that is crosschecked with the official voter registration listing. Think about the technology used to get through the airport TSA security checkpoint. If the crosscheck does not produce a confirmed eligibility the voter is given a ‘provisional ballot’ to cast. Determination of eligibility is accomplished within 24 hours so as to be accepted or rejected as per state rules. Government ID’s will be available free of charge up to seven days prior to 1^st Tuesday in November at any state government outlet (DMV, VA, Social Services, etc.) for those needing one.

These ideas are not meant to be punitive, restrictive, or otherwise to be seen with any motive toward suppressing one’s voting rights. Rather, it is meant to draw more focus on what is the most important part of participating in a Republic; choosing who will be our leaders and presumably work in our best interests. Enacting a Federal Holiday, standardizing registration dates and deadlines across all 50 states, DC and territories, restricting the time to cast a ballot to a single 24-hour period, and requiring a photo ID puts all the responsibility on the voter and a direct emphasis on the importance of the act itself. 

Much of this theory comes into conflict with the Founders ideas of Federalism and how states determine how they will conduct their own elections. I admit to grappling with this conflict while pondering this issue. It remains unresolved to an extent.

The overriding thought is that as we continue to make life (voting) easier we tend to not pay appropriate attention to important responsibilities we have as citizens.     

The Gaslighting of American Culture

May 2021 

…. To manipulate (someone) by psychological means into questioning their own sanity

Hey Americans; does this ring a bell? Every day seems to present itself as a new opportunity to excel in words and actions based on inanity and stupidity. Ironically (or possibly sarcastically) the leaders in this ever-tightening downward spiral are the exact ones our culture has deemed to be the smartest guys in the room. Namely, corporate heads, state and national politicians, kindergarten teachers to university faculties, celebrities, and news media personalities.

The saddest part of this action equation is the way those in the wake of these ‘smart guys’ have bought into their drivel. And why not, we’ve idolized and revered these exact people for our entire American experience because we actually thought they were the smartest guys in the room. They aren’t.

Gaslighting … Is someone manipulating you?

They tell you we’re a racist country, that vaccines work … but maybe not really, that riots are mostly peaceful demonstrations, that certain demographic groups aren’t smart enough to know how or when to vote, that boys and girls are simply an abstract idea, that cops are evil, that the Constitution is an outdated set of rules constructed by simple men, that fences around Capitol Hill work but border walls don’t, that words spoken by some are okay but inflammatory when spoken by others, that illegal entry into the country really isn’t illegal at all but rather compassionate and humanitarian (someone needs to tell the Customs and Border Enforcement folks at all our airports), that inclusion and diversity in the workplace trumps merit, experience, and quality from the Operating Room to the cockpit and everywhere in between, that the earth is doomed within 12 years, that laws, rules, rewards, and consequences are made for some but not for others  .. Had enough yet?

“A lie told once remains a lie but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth” (Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Reich Minister of Propaganda). Ironic? Not really.

Our country has lost its collective mind. To realize that a 31-year-old, totally inexperienced person in the political realm can be elected to the US Congress is, in and of itself, a really good thing as it acts as an example of the opportunity this country presents. But it also exposes a malleable insecurity within the political class of leaders in our society. It becomes an enigma to see how proficiency with social media and its inherent ability to form a consensus – rather than a certain depth of critical thought, has propelled this figure into positions of power where what is said actually sets the stage for broadscale conversation. One has to wonder how we got here.

Listening to the same media talking heads, medical authorities, legal analysts, political pundits, social activists tell us what we think we need to know without realizing that the words coming out of their mouths may not have your best interest in mind doesn’t seem to be an exercise in rational thought. The very definition of gaslighting.

There are very good reasons why rates of drug overdoses, suicides, depression, social disengagement, anger issues have sky-rocketed. The easy and most popular answer would be to blame it all on Covid or Trump. Its so much deeper than that and everyone and everything previously mentioned are ingredients in this horrible stew. The world has become so cluttered and noisy with all the wrong stuff that we seem to have forgotten the important human elements.

A good friend recently expressed to me that he knew many more people that have succumbed to suicide than from Covid. From personal experience I had to agree. Interesting to note that Covid ranks far above suicide in the US cause of death rate calculations. The CDC reports a dramatic rise in overdose rates in the early months of the Covid era. My state of Maine is already outpacing the terrible record set in 2020. Behavioral specialists and psychologists will tell you the single worst environment for someone going through addiction or depression issues is isolation. The FAA recently reported that airborne misconduct incidents thus far in 2021 are ten times higher than for previous full year reports. Civil unrest, property destruction, and public lawlessness is at a level not seen since the 60’s.

So, what’s the point? Maybe it’s time to take back our lives, to think for ourselves, to make decisions based not on what the smart guys tell us but on what you know is clearly right and wrong. Maybe it’s time for Americans to get back to basics and stop putting so much faith in people and institutions that don’t deserve it. In essence, it’s time to reject the gaslighting and retrieve our sanity.

America has been in crisis mitigation and regulatory restriction mode for as long as the smart guys have told us it was the thing to do. Good Americans have done what has been asked but those given the power and control continued to move the goalposts to the point where they have lost their credibility and our respect. Power and control have legitimate and recognizable limits and Americans cannot lose their ability to discern where those limits exist. At the most basic level it’s just not part of the traditional American gene set to have personal freedoms and liberties taken away by executive fiat as has been done in many states. Elected officials claim they want everything to get back to normal but whose definition of normal will it be?

Isn’t it time we get back to thinking, discerning, and assimilating what is actually true and not everything you’re being fed based on their perspectives … and not yours?

I reject gaslighting not because I’m the smartest guy in the room but because my common sense seems to be a whole lot more well educated.

The Incredible Shrinking POTUS

29 March 2021

One of the things that impressed me early on in the business world was the command that the CEO or someone in a similar position had over the whole spectrum of his responsibility. Finance, marketing, legal, personnel, market place numbers, stats, and strategic positions were all within his mental grasp. There were no notes, crib sheets, or teleprompters. Just raw memory and acumen. The ability to answer questions on a wide range of topics without hesitation gave the single impression that there was someone in positive control with a competent level of cognition holding the leadership position for whatever was going on. One didn’t have to agree with everything the leader had to say or positions he or she took but there was a sense of confidence that someone skilled was in charge.

I don’t get that feeling these days from America’s Commander in Chief and his team in the Executive Branch. President Joe Biden’s first press conference on 25 March, 2021 provided no relief from the uneasy feeling that I (and likely many others) have had about President Biden’s level of cognition, ability to communicate simple ideas, answer easy questions, or finish a sentence. Americans elect and then expect their president to command a presence of someone who is deemed to be the most powerful person in the free world. He failed on all counts. In fact, President Biden appeared to be a very small and confused man; a frail leader that had been coached extensively, had practiced but failed to deliver even canned answers, and exercised a beautifully composed cheat sheet of talking points prepared by his staff from which to display his command of the issues. Imagine shareholder concern if Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, or FedEx’s Fred Smith conducted an important meeting with the same level of function that Joe Biden just conducted his first press conference as President of the United States.

New York Post 3/25/2021

But it really doesn’t matter anymore because everything in The DC Swamp is kabuki theater these days with the major media outlets and the Washington Press Corps acting as Executive Producers. It conjures up memories of the 1993 movie Dave, starring Kevin Kline who stands in as a stunt-double president after the real president suffers a stroke. ‘Dave’ holds the title but knows literally nothing about being the President. All ends well in the movie but sadly, this is where any analogy ends. The Biden tenure as President of the United States will not end well for the Republic.

Who is pushing what buttons in the Oval Office? What person whom nobody has ever heard of, let alone elected has access and is advising the President? Is this an administration by committee where the committee chair does not have an original idea, vision or a clue as to cause and effect relationships of his ultimate decisions and promulgations? One has to ask who is actually running the country right now? In any case, Joe Biden and his thoughts keep getting smaller and more irrelevant with each passing week.

This sense of unease started for me midway through the run-up to the November 2020 election. For a national campaign wherein, the presidential candidate did little to no substantive campaigning, often appeared confused and overwhelmed, never established a national vision for the future and yet won an election handily is weird in and of itself. To not look with a slanted eye at the inconsistencies and questions surrounding it is to divorce oneself from any form of objective reality. Kudos to the Biden campaign manager to have pulled off one of the most incredible political strategies ever. But then again, it may have been an easy decision based on what we have seen of Biden’s ability to focus, strategize, and communicate vision.

One has to ask some pretty in-depth questions to ascertain where all those Executive Orders and cabinet nominations that rolled out in rapid fashion came from. The cynic in me thinks that powerful, anonymous Democrat pols working tirelessly behind the scenes persistently make their cases to forge Joe Biden’s malleable course. His well-documented history of changing policy positions based on wind direction gives the impression that he is less motivated by his own deeply rooted core beliefs than he is with the loudest voices that surround him. But then again, what else should one expect from a life-long politician?

I doubt anyone would say the same thing about the leadership of Barack Obama, Bush 41 or 43, or any other president including Donald Trump. All had their own vision and could command it with confidence.

So, who is running the country right now; Pelosi and Schumer? Kamala Harris? Special interests? Deep State? Administrative staffers? Who tells press secretary Jen Psaki what to say?

The days of Joe Biden being seen as the career political heavyweight from the smallest state are over. So are his tough guy days when he dreamed of taking bullies behind the gym to punch them in the face. It’s difficult to believe ambitious Democrat Party members see him as anything but their locum tenens. When they gather, it’s doubtful to think his own cabinet members and inner circle consider him the smartest guy in the room.

The countries of the world where the US remains in good standing are not oblivious to the current state of affairs in the White House. They’ll accommodate and play nice, albeit more nervously than they ever have in the past. But it’s those other countries with whom I become concerned; China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Syria. The ones that watch our every move while they plan theirs as we show our weaknesses. They won’t be so accommodating.

Sure, this is all purely opinion based on the daily political observations I’ve made since Carter began his presidential downward slide in the late 70’s. Sadly, the smoke signals in 2021 don’t look good as I interpret them. When SNL devotes multiple bits to torch a new Democrat president, you know things aren’t on even keel.

The Whole Truth and Nothing but the Truth

6 October 2018

You hear this oath every time someone is about to give testimony in a courtroom setting. I could add the rest of it; “so help me, God” but regrettably our culture has long since ceased to use God as a measuring stick for anything. The question then becomes; what version of the truth are we about to hear? The problem is that Truth (capital T) doesn’t have versions; it is absolute much like what happens when you accidentally try to pick up a hot skillet. There are no versions, just reality.

True: in accordance with fact or reality, what actually/really happened

Truth: the quality or state of being true. That which is true or in accordance with fact or reality

Pop culture tells us that truth is simply your own version of reality. The idea that truth is relative, pliable to meet one’s view of reality, or situational is a sad commentary on the human condition and how reality is perceived and subsequently valued. The absence of truth leads to no rights and wrongs, no true or false, no lies, no facts … no nothing. It becomes the springboard for an ‘anything goes’ society.

As a society we have bastardized the very essence of truth as a core element of civilization wherein laws are enacted, reputations are established, business is conducted, wrongs are adjudicated, information is disseminated, and common discourse is accepted. Our culture seems to have accepted not telling the truth as a normal course of human behavior. What is even worse is that in accepting whatever someone says as being true we exhibit an abject laziness in not seeking what is verifiable and thereby, truly real.

Several years ago I heard of an experiment which I proceeded to try on my own. I was to go about my normal daily activities and then, at lunch, review my conversations from the morning. I was to count the number of times I didn’t tell the whole truth but rather exaggerated, spun the facts, replaced fact with opinion, or flat out lied. I was amazed at how tragically I had failed in just 5 hours by simply not telling the Truth. My epic failure suddenly became a crusade for me. Truth became such a big deal that this introspection exercise became a persistent ritual. With a new perspective on my own behavior, I began developing filters while listening to others who hadn’t experienced their own epic failure.

Our culture has lionized certain figures; athletes, politicians, celebrities, business icons, media personalities. When they say something, we assume it to be grounded in truth. Trump, Obama, Clinton, Nixon, Ted Kennedy, Gen. Petraeus, Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, Pete Rose, Barry Bonds, Bill O’Reilly, Brian Williams, Martha Stewart, Harvey Weinstein, Andrew McCabe, tobacco industry and big pharma all gave their versions of the truth when it appeared they could get away with it. As it typically does, the real truth eventually emerged and they all paid a significant price of some sort.

The recent Senate Judiciary Committee hearings for Supreme Court nominee Bret Kavanaugh was an embarrassing American spectacle by any definition but especially illustrative where truth and fiction are concerned. No matter which side one took there were conflicts in what turned out to be a ‘he said – she said’ battle of reality. Ironically, we were reminded how far our politics has devolved when an arbiter of truth was Sen. Richard Blumenthal (Dem-CT.). Listening to him lecture Judge Kavanaugh on the subject of truth was rich while remembering he played the lead character in a case of stolen valor.

Credibility and believability cannot become replacements for what is true yet we have reached a point in our culture where that seems to be the case. One has to wonder if we even care about truth anymore. People lie to each other with impunity; on TV and social media, to authorities, even in court under oath. Perjury, slander and libel laws and penalties have been on the books for a long time but indictments and convictions for lying are extremely rare. The reason? They’re very tough to litigate because the legal hurdles of intent, interpretation, and subjectivity swallow up the ‘whole truth and nothing but the truth’.

Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential election with a theme of making American great again. He may be able to accomplish this on the economic and foreign policy front but on the social and cultural front, America has all the symptoms of a culture in decline when reality and truth become moving targets.

 

 

 

The New Standard of Critical Thinking

I was having a discussion with house guests over coffee one morning recently and the subject of the economy came up. Because no subject is truly complete these days without bringing politics into it I found it took an interesting turn. All three guests were in their early thirties, graduates from great universities with one of them having completed a masters in economics. Each has been successful in their own right since graduation and were engaged in jobs that would lead to very respectable careers if they so desired.

What became interesting was when the subject of the Trump administration came up in correlation to the economy. While not overtly anti-Trump; I think partially because they were being kind as they felt out my politics, it soon became almost unanimous that the current administration and much of what its policies had done were not responsible for the dramatic economic uptick over the last 18 months. Absent from their memory was the 7 years of status quo fiscal policy and dismal post-recession growth between 2008 and 2015. To them, it seemed simply a matter of normal economic progression over time. In their mind, the robust recovery since 2016 energized by the 2017 tax cuts and deregulation brought to mind a familiar phrase used by former president Barack Obama, …” You didn’t build that.”

What followed next was a short dialogue that displayed a rather shallow root structure supporting their positions, surprisingly most evident in the reasoning from the economics specialist. Lost in reasoning was any connection or recognition of administrative policies geared toward corporate deregulation, repatriation of corporate capital held abroad, and tax policy. Much to the contrary these things were refuted as either ineffective or focused on big business and the upper-income earners. There was no connecting the dots between a bigger economy and larger tax receipt yields supported by recent governmental data. (The Corporate Tax Cut Is Paying for Itself, Wall Street Journal; 19 September 2018). All three claimed having never realized any advantage in their personal income taxes from 2017 after thorough examinations of their paycheck stubs and that in their minds all of it was geared to 1%’ers and corporations. This perplexed me as my recollection of being a thirty-something was that I wasn’t very cerebral about the taxes portion of my paycheck stubs at that age; my mind was on other things far from anything fiscal on the federal level.

So how did we get here, what is being lost in discourse, and is this the new normal for depth in terms of critical thinking? These guys were bright, well-schooled, not rookies in the business world, and had a refreshing ability to entertain a cogent conversation. But they seemed unable intellectually to accept some pretty evident realities that were not congruent with either their advanced education or the mainstream media loudspeaker.

Does reworking NAFTA matter? Is our trade imbalance important enough to the health of our domestic economy to try to renegotiate it? Was it not prudent to unleash corporate America from burdensome and mostly feckless governmental regulation? If you actually didn’t see any difference in your paycheck stub based on the advertised tax rate cut is it that it doesn’t exist or did you simply fail to exercise new credit or deduction advantages built into the new tax policy? Was it wrong for the most industrialized country on earth that also employs and produces the most, to also tax those corporations at the highest rate on the globe (OECD countries)? Does lowering that corporate tax rate not carry positives for growth and job creation? Is there an understanding of the impact that the repatriation of overseas corporate earnings does for the front-end health of a corporation that potentially translates to employee paychecks, job creation, and corporate growth?

These were the questions that were never asked. Had there been time I would have loved to peel back the millennial onion further to see their thought process and depth of reasoning on foreign policy, entitlements, immigration, etc.

I’m intrigued and care far more about ‘how and why’ one thinks the way they do than ‘what’ one thinks. Critical thinking is tough these days for anyone not willing to look past the persona of Donald Trump and give a fair assessment of his policies; good and bad. To do so, however, requires one to go past CNN, Twitter, and the water cooler, and not immediately revert to the reflexive reaction – ‘if it’s Trump, it must be bad’.