I just wanted to say thanks to those who have read this blog from time to time over the last few months. It has been fun, interesting, educational and, at times, depressing to do this and I appreciate all of you who took the time to read it.

I have developed some vision problems which have made it very difficult to read and, consequently, write. Not to worry, I’m sure the opthamologists will get me all fixed up. In the mean time, I not going to be posting for a while as its just too taxing. I’m not sure if this will be measured in days or weeks but at some point in the future I expect to be back at the keyboard. I just didn’t want to flip the switch and disappear with no explanation.

I certainly hope when I come back on line we have a new president, this Trump nightmare will be coming to an end and I can start writing about something else. In the mean time, thanks again and everyone stay safe.

Cheers!

First of all, my apologies for the length of this post.  As we approach the upcoming election, and given that I and many others have made statements to the effect that this is the most important election of our lifetimes, I decided to do a” look back” at all of the presidents who have served during my lifetime.  I was born in 1951 so the president at the time was Harry Truman.

Harry S. Truman (1945 – 1953):   Ordered the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the Japanese refused to surrender. Subsequently, he “presented to Congress a 21-point program, proposing the expansion of Social Security, a full-employment program, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, and public housing and slum clearance.  The program came to know as the ‘Fair Deal.’¹ He presided over the “Marshall Plan, named for his secretary of state, stimulated spectacular economic recovery in war-torn western Europe”¹.

Dwight Eisenhower (1953 – 1961):   Commanding General of the WWII European Theater of Operations forces. The armed truce along the Korean border was signed in 1953.  Eisenhower tried to reduce some of the Cold War tensions and even tried to negotiate the first ‘Open Skies’ treaty with the Soviet Union – which they rejected.   He carried on much of the ‘New Deal’ and ‘Fair Deal’ policies started under Roosevelt and Truman, respectively.  He also presided over the initial school desegregation efforts after the ruling the Brown vs. Board of Education case, although not as aggressively as some Civil Rights leaders had wanted.

John F. Kennedy (1961 – 1963):   WWII Navy hero.  Famous for the line, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”  Author of the Pulitzer Prize winning book, “Profiles in Courage.”  Presided over the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.  Took a courageous stand against the Soviet Union when they secretly placed missiles in Cuba, ultimately leading to the withdrawal of the missiles and the signing of a partial nuclear test ban treaty.  Assassinated in 1963.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1963 – 1969):  Completed things pushed by Kennedy which included Civil Rights legislation and a major tax cut.  Also passed a number of programs as part of his vision for a ‘Great Society.’  These included, “bills for aid to education, attack on disease, Medicare, urban renewal, conservation, development of depressed regions, a wide-scale fight against poverty, control and prevention of crime and delinquency, and removal of obstacles to the right to vote especially for African Americans”.¹  He undertook secret efforts to broker a peace settlement in Vietnam but those efforts failed and the war escalated which overshadowed much of what he accomplished in other areas.

Richard Nixon (1969 – 1974): “During his presidency, Nixon succeeded in ending American fighting in Vietnam, improving relations with the Soviet Union, and ending America’s estrangement from China.”¹ In addition, “Nixon’s accomplishments while in office included revenue sharing, the end of the draft, new anticrime laws, and a broad environmental program. As he had promised, he appointed justices of conservative philosophy to the Supreme Court. In 1969, he welcomed back the astronauts who had made the first moon landing.”  Unfortunately, almost all of Nixon’s accomplishments are overshadowed by the Watergate scandal which ultimately led to his resignation.

Gerald R. Ford (1974 – 1977):  Ford is probably most famous for granting his predecessor, Richard Nixon, a pardon after the Watergate scandal.  However, he did provide aid to both Egypt and Israel which resulted in an interim truce.  Détente continued with the Soviet Union.  He also was in office during a time of significant inflation and used his veto 39 times on non-military appropriations to try to reign in spending under a Democratic Congress. 

Jimmy Carter (1977 – 1981): Carter inherited a government racked by inflation and unemployment.  Eight million jobs were created under his administration and the deficit declined as a percentage of Gross National Product but coupled with the energy crisis it wasn’t enough to keep the economy from going into a recession.  He enacted civil service reform, a national energy policy, created the Department of Education, and appointed record numbers of women, African- Americans and Hispanics to government jobs.  Ongoing inflation and unemployment coupled with the Iran hostage crisis resulted in Carter’s defeat to Ronald Reagan after his one term in office.

Ronald Reagan (1981 – 1989):  Reagan presided over the end to the Cold War with the famous line, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” and a treaty banning intermediate-range nuclear missiles.  He pushed an income tax reform bill through Congress but instead of reducing the deficit with ‘Reaganomics’, the national debt ballooned.  However, the economy did recover from the previous administration’s era of high inflation and high unemployment.  The Iran-Contra Affair did cloud his administration a bit but not enough to prevent a second term in office.

George Bush (1989-1993):  Presided over the breakup to the Soviet Union and the founding of a new post Cold War era with Mikhail Gorbachev.  He sent troops to Panama to oust the corrupt regime of Manuel Noriega.  In 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and threatened Saudi Arabia.  Bush built a coalition of international partners and launched ‘Desert Storm’ to oust Saddam from Kuwait.  [ I remember it well – I was in Abu Dhabi at the time!]  The campaign to oust Saddam was successful but after 12 years of Republican political leaders, the populace wanted a change and Bush lost to Clinton after one term

William (Bill) Clinton (1993 – 2001):  His administration saw an economic expansion and the first budget surplus in decades.   The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was negotiated during his administration.  “He championed NATO bombing to stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, approved bombing of Iraq to “deny” Saddam Hussein the “capacity” to use weapons of mass destruction, and worked hard to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians”¹ However, Clinton was also impeached for lying about his fling with Monica Lewinsky.   He was not found guilty and removed from office and served two full terms.

George H.W. Bush (2001 – 2009):  Bush lost the popular vote to Al Gore but won through the electoral college when the Supreme Court stepped in.  Bush saw the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center which killed over 3,000 Americans.  He launched the ‘war on terrorism’ in both Afghanistan and then went after Saddam Hussein in Iraq on faulty intelligence involving Weapons of Mass Destruction.  He was criticized for his slow response to Hurricane Katrina which struck the Gulf Coast and then in 2008, the Wall Street collapse ushered a major recession.

Barak Obama (2009 – 2017):  The first African-American president. “During his first term he signed three signature bills; an omnibus bill to stimulate the economy, legislation making health care more accessible and affordable, and legislation reforming the nation’s financial institutions. Obama also pressed for a fair pay act for women, financial reform legislation, and efforts for consumer protection. In 2009, Obama became the fourth president to receive the Nobel Peace Prize”.¹ Ordered the killing of Osama bin Laden.  Oversaw an economic recovery following the Wall Street collapse.

Donald J. Trump (2017 -?):   Draw your own conclusions by looking through the lens of the accomplishments of past presidents.

If there is one common thread among all of the presidents prior to Trump listed above is the fact that they were all enacting legislation and policies and building international alliances as part of a national vision.  Trump’s administration is known more for tearing things down, undoing work that has been done before and alienating strategic allies.   There is no vision for the country – only actions which Trump views as beneficial to Trump and his family.

When I look at what Trump has done in his first term as president ( particularly in light of the current pandemic)  compared to what every other president in my lifetime has done, it is clear to me that he is clearly out of his league.    He doesn’t hold a candle to even the worst of these people.   At least everyone in the above list was willing to put the country first, whether or not you agreed with their policies.  Trump only cares about Trump.  We need someone who will work for ‘we the people’.  This is, in fact, the most important election of my lifetime.

1. https://www.whitehousehistory.org/the-presidents-timeline

I was looking back at some of the stuff I’ve written over the last few months and I came across this post.  When I posted this August 5^th, the death toll in the United States was 160,000 – it now stands at 230,000!  Think about that, in less than three months, 70,000 Americans have perished of this disease and cases are dramatically rising in many places in this country, even here in little old Montana.  And yet, you still see many people, including the President, totally ignoring CDC guidelines about mask wearing, social distancing and large gatherings.   Models project that if 95% of the people just simply wore masks, it would save 100,000 lives over the next three months. It’s not about ‘freedom.’  It’s about having respect for your fellow citizens. But I guess putting on a little mask is too high a price from many people.  And that’s why what I wrote in August is even more true today.

Why you are not welcome in my home.

That’s a pretty harsh statement.  I admit that.  But it’s also a true statement.  I really don’t want any visitors right now.  Don’t get me wrong.  I am not the next Ted Kaczynski (the ‘Unabomber’) nor am I antisocial.  I like people – let me qualify that – I like most people.  I enjoy entertaining and having engaging conversations with all kinds of different people.  So why aren’t you welcome in my house?

I guess the short version is that I simply don’t trust you based upon what I witness on a daily basis.  I really hate to say that but it’s true.   There is after all a pandemic going on (currently approaching 160,000 American fatalities [as of August 5^th]) and the fact is that my life is potentially in your hands.   Some of you say that you are following CDC guidelines and others of you obviously continue to think this is all still a big hoax.  But based upon what I see when driving around and what is posted on social media, I’m not convinced that I am willing to take the risk to put my life in your hands.

I go to Home Depot because I need supplies for all of the remodeling I’m doing around my house.  ( And yes I’m masked and well-armed with hand sanitizer) Although things have improved and most people are wearing masks, there are still the ones who have not figured out that the nasal passages are just as connected to the lungs as the mouth, so wearing a mask solely over your mouth when your nose is exposed is a pointless exercise.  I try to stay away from those people.  They either flunked biology or are obviously not taking this seriously.

I sometimes drive down main street on my way home and see people crowded around the ice cream stores or various other venues and while some may be masked, some are not and there certainly isn’t any social distancing taking place.   I can get my ice cream at the store – thank you very much.

I talked to my daughter a couple of nights who was very frustrated.  She and her mom are back in New York and taking this seriously, but she was frustrated by what she was seeing on social media with some of her friends and family.  They all espouse the use of masks and the need to take this seriously and yet they post pictures of themselves on social media out with their friends, no masks in sight and no social distancing going on.   Jordan is a pre-med student.  She takes this seriously and it frustrates the hell out of her.  I can only encourage her to continue to do the right thing.

It’s almost as if people seem to think that if you’re with your friends or family that it’s an automatic ‘safe zone.’   I’m not sure that the virus really understands that concept.  It’s an interesting mindset.  On a battlefield, the lives of everyone around you depend upon your actions.  I am having a very difficult time understanding why this is any different.

If people were in a firefight and real bullets were flying, I’m sure everyone would take the appropriate precautions – body armor, stay low to the ground, take cover when possible, etc. – but I doubt seriously people would feel safe to just standup and strip off their body armor if they were joined by their buddies on the battlefield.  Oh, ‘we’re friends, so no bullets can get us now’.  Everyone would probably agree that is an absurd concept.  And while the battle we’re in doesn’t involve bullets per se, it does involve microscopic projectiles hell bent on wreaking havoc on anyone they can infect. 

There are some things you can control and some things you can’t.  I know that I can pretty much control who comes into my house and who I associate with and when.    So, for the foreseeable future, I won’t be accepting any company in my house nor will I be doing any socializing elsewhere.   Is that unfortunate – yes!  Is it manageable – yes!

I am fortunate in that I am not one of those people who must be around people.  I don’t mind being by myself.  I have lots of books to read, projects to do, miles to log on my bicycle, and thinking about trips I may take when this is all over.   My only daughter is currently in New York and I have no grandkids so I understand that my situation is somewhat unique for someone my age.  That said, this disease is extremely contagious, is totally non-discriminatory, and really doesn’t care if you’re a friend, relative or foe.

I’m sure there are those that think I’m being paranoid but I prefer to think of it as being cautious and prudent.  I also view it as simply trying to do my small part to get this monster under control.  I heard someone once say, “We all have to die sometime, but I am going to do everything in my power to avoid dying by ‘stupid’”. 

The irony is that the more I stay away from everyone else, the safer everyone else is.  If they get the virus, they won’t be getting it from me.  I fully understand that there is still a chance I may get the coronavirus.  Perhaps I lingered too long at Home Depot or the grocery store.  Who knows?  It’s possible.  But I understand math and science and I understand the more I can stack the odds in my favor, the higher the probability that I’ll be around to see Jordan graduate, get married, have kids, etc.  And the more precautions I take, the safer everyone around me is as well.  

So, until this is over or at least contained, you are not welcome in my house nor will I be visiting you.  No hard feelings.  We’ll get together on the other side.  I look forward to being able to once again roll out the welcome mat but, for now, it’s rolled up and tucked away in the garage.  Be safe out there.

I decided to include the following article in its entirety.  The Trump administration has seemingly thrown in the towel on the fight with the coronavirus because they are unable to make the tough decisions required to try to contain this virus.  The article below outlines what the Premier of the State of Victoria did in Australia in spite of sometimes vocal opposition.  It’s called leadership.

“Australia’s coronavirus epicenter records no new cases as the US and Western Europe struggle to contain the pandemic

(CNN)Melbourne, the city at the epicenter of Australia’s coronavirus epidemic, will move out of lockdown this week after the Victoria state health department on Sunday reported no new cases and no deaths due to the virus for the first time in more than four months.

Announcing the relaxation of restrictions at a news conference on Monday, Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said starting on Tuesday at 11:59 p.m., Melbourne residents will be allowed to leave their homes and most businesses in the state can reopen with restrictions on the number of people.

“With 0 cases and so much testing, we are able to say that now is the time to open up. Now is the time to congratulate every single Victorian who has stayed the course,” Andrews said.

The remarkable milestone of no new cases comes just months after Andrews declared a “state of disaster” to stem an outbreak that saw as many as 725 people in the state test positive for the virus in a single day.

The internet really has opened up a whole new world. Literally. Anytime you open up your laptop, you have an entire globe’s worth of information at your fingertips.

The steep decline in cases has allowed the government to lift major social distancing measures that have been in place for weeks.

As cases began skyrocketing this summer, Andrews put in place the type of strict anti-epidemic measures that governments in Western Europe and the United States have been hesitant to enact out of fear of damaging the economy and trampling on civil liberties.

From a public health standpoint, Andrews’ decision appeared to have worked. While cases in Europe continue to skyrocket to record-breaking levels and US President Donald Trump’s chief of staff said the United States “will not be able to contain the pandemic,” Victoria appears to have done just that.

East Asian governments including those in China, South Korea and Taiwan have not needed to put in place such restrictions because early efforts to contain the virus focused on testing and contact tracing, combined with the readiness of their respective populations to wear masks and follow social distancing guidelines, which helped keep the pandemic in check.

Andrews said Victoria was able to rein in the pandemic because of the public’s willingness to endure hardship, listen to the science and follow the rules.

“I could not be prouder than I am today to lead a state that has showed the courage, the compassion, and the character to get this job done. But it is not yet absolutely finished,” he said.

“We have to be vigilant in the weeks and months … until a vaccine comes, there is no normal. There is only Covid-normal.”

Under the relaxed measures, staff are allowed to immediately return to their businesses in order to prepare for customers and put in place anti-epidemic measures.

Some restrictions, including a 25-kilometer (15-mile) limit on travel and an internal border between Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne, will remain in place until November 8.

Though Victoria, as of Monday, accounts for at least 20,300 of Australia’s more than 27,500 cases and 817 of the country’s 905 deaths, the number of active cases in Victoria has steadily declined in the past 30 days. The number of new infections has been in single digits since October 13 and has not exceeded 20 in the past month.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison congratulated the state for the drop in Covid-19 cases and lauded Victorians for the making “great progress in reducing the rate of Covid-19 infection.”

“They have played their part and sacrificed much in the pursuit of reaching those targets in the belief restrictions would be eased,” he said.

Morrison added that Victoria would open state borders by Christmas. They were closed as part of the federal government’s response to the pandemic.

Winter lockdown

Victoria and its capital Melbourne faced Australia’s worst outbreak of Covid-19 this Australian winter.

Andrews declared the disaster in early August as Victoria was recording hundreds of cases per day, while the federal government closed the state’s borders to non-essential travel. The state’s government instituted some of the strictest social distancing measures in the country, including placing Melbourne’s 5 million residents under a seven-week lockdown and barring nearly all trips outdoors.

The decision was unpopular with Andrews’ detractors on the right, who held protests, called him a “dictator” and said he was trying to build “a gulag.” He also faced pressure from business and Prime Minister Morrison to ease the strain on the economy caused by the lockdown.

Andrews said Monday the government was not going to be “pushed by the loudest voices” to reopen before public health experts deemed it was safe to do so.

The draconian restrictions were kept in place for quite some time, even as the state’s case count and the number of fatalities began dropping.

By late September, cases has declined to low double-digits, allowing the government to lift Melbourne’s curfew.

Andrews hinted earlier this month that authorities were considering lifting more restrictions if trends continued in the right direction. However, a small cluster of cases in Melbourne’s northern suburbs prompted him to put in place a “cautious pause” in order to test more than 4,000 residents, further delaying reopening.

Nearly all tests have come back negative. Andrews said health authorities can now rule out widespread community transmission.

“It was worth waiting to be sure,” he said.”¹

Leadership should never be a popularity contest.  Leadership is about having the courage to make the right decisions, even if they are unpopular.  There is only one explanation why this country, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, has had such a hard time combatting this pandemic – we have no leadership – period!   Rather than focus on fighting this pandemic, Trump and the administration are more interested in living in ‘fantasy land’ as opposed to following the science,  in forcing through a Supreme Court nomination against the wishes of the majority of Americans and holding massive campaign rallies in direct contravention of the CDC’s own guidelines.  Trump has loudly called out professional athletes for taking a knee during the playing of the national anthem, arguing that it is disrespectful and unpatriotic.   Trump and his enablers have shown far more disrespect for this country, its people, its institutions and the US Constitution than all of those professional athletes combined.   

1. https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/26/australia/australia-victoria-covid-19-intl-hnk/index.html

I don’t even know where to begin.  I started writing these blogs a few months ago – June 2^nd to be exact.  I did it because I just needed somewhere to vent about everything that was going on in the political landscape of this country.  I have covered a lot of ground.  I’ve learned a lot.  I’ve read a number of interesting and informative books.  And here we are about one week away from Election 2020.  Every presidential election is often billed as ‘the most important election of our lives,’ but I think this time, it really is. 

In my opinion, this nation will not be able to recover and move forward unless and until the rampant partisanship and societal polarization is addressed.  That is just a fact.  Even if and when an efficacious and widely available vaccine for COVID is on the street and the economy begins a slow recovery, Trump will continue to fan the flames of division and govern less than half the country.   Donald J. Trump has demonstrated, in spades, that he is psychologically incapable of uniting this nation.  It is just not who he is. 

Governing an entity such as the United States is a very complex undertaking involving a very diverse population facing huge, hard-to-solve issues.  And when you are leading a nation of 330 million people, there is a 100 percent probability that some segment(s) of that population are not going to agree with everything you say and do.  That does not mean those people are unpatriotic.  They have every right under the US Constitution to disagree with the leadership of this country.  If the person running the country does not understand that or is uncomfortable with that reality, they should not be in the job – period.

When I talk about needing a leader who is capable of ‘uniting’ the country, I certainly don’t mean that all 330 million people will get up every morning and sing the national anthem in unison.  I’m talking about a leader who, once in office, will understand the need to listen to disparate points of view and use that information to make informed, rational decisions that are in the long-term best interests of the country and ALL of its people.  Trump is just not capable of doing that.  He only listens to people who agree with him, disparages all others and makes all decisions through the lens of how they will benefit him.

Trump has had four years to try to show some leadership and try to solve the ultra-partisanship and, as far as I can see, he has done nothing to try to mitigate the polarization.  And, in fact, he continuously fans the flames of racism, bigotry and hate.  That, in my opinion, is why he does not deserve a second term.  It is hard to imagine how the country could become even more divided than it already is, but after another four years of Trump, I shudder to think what this country will look like.   It will certainly be a different America than anything most of us have experienced in our lifetimes.

My argument against Trump is not a Democrat versus Republican issue.  I am an Independent and rarely vote a straight party ticket.  I vote for people.  If there was a reasonable Republican candidate running against Biden, I would have to weigh all of the factors before making a decision.  But the fact is, Trump is not a true Republican.  He may have co-opted the party, but based upon past platforms from the Republicans, he is not a true Republican.   So, let’s just take political parties off the table.

My issue with Trump is simply that he is psychologically incapable of governing a diverse democratic country of 330 million people.  He ran his businesses as an authoritarian who never had to be accountable to anyone.   Even when he screwed up, either his father or the banks would bail him out.  Or he would have his army of lawyers litigate ‘opponents’ into submission.  In his companies, if people disagreed with him, he could have them fired.  Given this environment in which he has lived his entire life, he has never been in a position where he had to learn to cooperate and build consensus.  The whole concept is foreign to him.  This view is certainly consistent with all of the books I have read about Trump.  He has a very transactional view of the world.  It’s a zero-sum game – someone always wins and someone always loses.  There is no room for compromise or anything resembling a ‘win-win’ situation.

The country will not fully recover economically and resume its place on the world stage with a President who refuses to be the president to half the population and does not understand the value of cooperating with strategic allies.  That’s just not how it works.  Imagine trying to run a business in which you only talked respectfully to and rewarded half of the employees.  How do you think that business would fair?  Not very well.  Unfortunately, that’s exactly what is happening in this country right now.

I guess we’ll all know within the next couple of weeks how this will play out.  I’ll certainly be sitting on the edge of my seat!  The fact is, I’ve been sitting on the edge of my seat much of the last four years.  I think it’s time we are all able to just sit back comfortably on the sofa for a while and relax.  I’ve had enough of the chaos, governing by Tweet and childish name calling and tantrums.  It’s well past time to tell this playground bully that he needs to go find another sandbox to play in.  

I have a confession to make. I did not watch the last presidential debate last night.  I just couldn’t.  I figured I would just read the synopsis and news accounts afterwards and spare myself the pain of watching it.  My ballot was sent in last week so there was nothing that was going to happen in the debate that was going to affect my vote anyway.

Given the record turnout for early voting in many states, it appears that the debate and all of the disgusting, misleading and false political ads polluting the airwaves will have little affect on most voters.  I suppose there are a few ‘fence-sitters’ who will wait until the last minute to flip their coin to decide who they will vote for, but I suspect for the majority of Americans, the die is cast.  The real question is, how will all of the external forces affect the vote counting?

There are intelligence reports that Iran is behind emails trying to intimidate voters and that Russia has actually hacked into election computers.  Couple these efforts with all of the lawsuits that are being brought by Republicans around the country designed to suppress the vote and who the hell knows what will come out as the certified vote count in the end.  It is a 100 percent probability that Trump will not win the popular vote so if he does eke out a victory, it will be through the arcane workings of the electoral college or through legislative chicanery.

Virtually all of the US intelligence agencies agree that Russia interfered in the 2016 election with the express goal of helping get Trump elected.  The only people that are disputing this fact are Trump, a few of those close to him and, of course, Russia.   Even Trump’s own appointed FBI director, Christopher Wray, agreed that the Russians interfered in 2016 and were mounting a similar campaign to interfere in the 2020 election.

The government has had 4 years to address this problem and what has been done – zip!  Why not?  You can draw your own conclusions.  But the bottom line is that it is unconscionable to know a problem like this exists and to do absolutely nothing about it. 

The House of Representatives has passed at least 10 bills to address election security and all of them were blocked by the Republican-controlled Senate.¹ Some of these bills just seem to be common sense things and it is beyond me (and probably most Americans) why they cannot be passed.  For example, “Democrats tried to get consent to pass two bills that require campaigns to alert the FBI and Federal Election Commission (FEC) about foreign offers of assistance, as well as legislation to provide more election funding and ban voting machines from being connected to the internet”.¹  Election security should not be a partisan issue.  It is an American issue.  It is fundamental to our democracy.

So, why the hell does it not make sense to alert the FBI about offers from foreign entities to help in an election?  And we know that hackers are becoming more and more sophisticated so why the hell are we risking connecting voting machines to the internet?   Even common-sense measures like these have run into a brick wall in the Republican-controlled Senate.  It just boggles the mind.

Here we are less than two weeks from another presidential election and we seem to be right back where we were in 2016.  It’s really criminal.  In my opinion, the Republican Party has become so corrupt under Trump and Mitch McConnell that they are willing to do absolutely anything to retain power.  And when I use the term ‘corrupt’ I am talking about the corruption of morals and principles.  There was a time when, even when there were policy differences, it was pretty much universally understood that it was ‘country first – party and individual agendas second.’  Now, it has become completely the opposite – individual and party agendas first and ‘the country’ coming in a distant second.

I’m not saying the Democrats are without sin, however, the majority of gerrymandering has been done by Republicans; the majority of voter suppression efforts have been undertaken by Republicans; the refusal to put any kind of Constitutional checks on Trump are Republican led; and this latest effort to ram through the Supreme Court nominee is the absolute height of hypocrisy.  The party has just become morally corrupt and has cast aside any semblance of principles.

There is no doubt that regardless of what the vote count is, Trump and the Republicans will mount numerous challenges around the country which will do nothing but add to Putin’s effort to undermine the election in the eyes of many Americans.  That is Putin’s whole strategy and Trump and the Republican party are his best agents.

It is well past time that significant election security legislation is enacted.  Free and fair elections that Americans trust are the cornerstone of our democracy and if we don’t have that, the ‘great American experiment’ is doomed.

1. https://thehill.com/homenews/house/482569-senate-gop-blocks-three-election-security-bills

One of the things that I have constantly wrestled with during the Trump administration is why his ‘fans’ are so rabid.  The bias of Fox News aside, we have all heard various versions of the same news stories, i.e. Trump’s ‘Muslim ban’, calling Mexicans rapists and murders, the childish name calling of people who disagree with him, and the sometimes not-so-subtle racist dog whistles like after the Charlottesville travesty.  So, I have to ask myself, if we are all seeing and hearing somewhat similar versions of the same thing, how can some people so rabidly support Trump while I, and many people I know, absolutely detest the man and everything he stands for?  I know that some people I know are Trump supporters and I don’t mean to offend anyone with this post, but these days, I feel like I just need to call it like I see it. 

Since the flooring contractor is continuing to work his way through my house, I am still somewhat isolated in my office.  I have lots of time on my hands so I thought I would look into this a little further.  In digging around a little, I came across an article from Psychology Today that seems to shed a little light on this question.  Admittedly, many professionals have looked into this very issue and there is not total agreement, although there are some areas of overlap, but I thought this article provided some interesting food for thought.  It is based upon a paper in the Journal of Social and Political Psychology, written by UC Santa Cruz Professor, Thomas Pettigrew. [I checked out the journal and it appears to be a ‘real’ peer-reviewed publication] The link to the article is below.

Pettigrew argues that there are five traits that tend to be prevalent in rabid Trump supporters.  These are:

1. Authoritarian Personality Syndrome
2. Social Dominance Orientation
3. Prejudice
4. Intergroup Contact
5. Relative Deprivation

Authoritarian personality syndrome—”a well-studied and globally-prevalent condition—is a state of mind that is characterized by belief in total and complete obedience to one’s authority. Those with the syndrome often display aggression toward outgroup members, submissiveness to authority, resistance to new experiences, and a rigid hierarchical view of society. The syndrome is often triggered by fear, making it easy for leaders who exaggerate threat or fear monger to gain their allegiance.”¹ It turns out that this syndrome tends to be more prevalent in right-wing groups.

Social Dominance Orientation – “which is distinct but related to authoritarian personality syndrome—refers to people who have a preference for the societal hierarchy of groups, specifically with a structure in which the high-status groups have dominance over the low-status ones. Those with SDO are typically dominant, tough-minded, and driven by self-interest.”¹ Trump plays on this by engaging in rhetoric that speaks to those who believe that white Americans are higher in status than non-white Americans and immigrants.

Prejudice – “It would be grossly unfair and inaccurate to say that every one of Trump’s supporters have prejudice against ethnic and religious minorities, but it would be equally inaccurate to say that many do not. It is a well-known fact that the Republican party, going at least as far back to Richard Nixon’s “southern strategy,” used strategies that appealed to bigotry, such as lacing speeches with “dog whistles”—code words that signaled prejudice toward minorities that were designed to be heard by racists but no one else.”¹ Unfortunately, Trump routinely engages in the use of ‘dog whistles’ and sometimes his race-baiting is not even that subtle.  Sadly, a new study has shown that support for Trump is correlated with a standard scale of modern racism.¹

Intergroup Contact – “Intergroup contact refers to contact with members of groups that are outside one’s own, which has been experimentally shown to reduce prejudice. As such, it’s important to note that there is growing evidence that Trump’s white supporters have experienced significantly less contact with minorities than other Americans.  For example, a 2016 study found that “…the racial and ethnic isolation of Whites at the zip-code level is one of the strongest predictors of Trump support.”¹ This particular trait really struck a chord with me, having gone to high school and college in Montana which is not exactly known for its diversity.  Perhaps had I stayed in Montana I would have fallen into this trap.  Fortunately, I left and was able to travel extensively, experience different cultures, live in many different places and even marry into a Hispanic family.  What I found was that diversity is something to be cherished, not feared.   I like vanilla ice cream but a constant diet of it is just boring!

Relative Deprivation – “Relative deprivation refers to the experience of being deprived of something to which one believes they are entitled. It is the discontent felt when one compares their position in life to others who they feel are equal or inferior but have unfairly had more success than them.

Common explanations for Trump’s popularity among non-bigoted voters involve economics. There is no doubt that some Trump supporters are simply angry that American jobs are being lost to Mexico and China, which is certainly understandable, although these loyalists often ignore the fact that some of these careers are actually being lost due to the accelerating pace of automation”¹

On the whole, this all makes a lot of sense to me.   To his credit, Trump has learned to push all of these buttons and, as a consequence, he has a rabid base of fans that will support him no matter what.  I do find a bit of irony in the fact that so many of Trump’s supporters have been part of the ‘anti-mask’ campaign under the guise that wearing a mask infringes upon their individual rights and freedoms, when one of the traits discussed above is ‘authoritarian personality syndrome’ in which people have total and complete obedience to one in authority.  People say they want to be free and yet they are slavishly obedient to Trump. Doesn’t sound like freedom to me.  Hmm?

It is no secret that Trump has done little to nothing to try to expand his base during his administration and Trump still has the support of less than half of the American public.  However, if Trump ekes out a second term, he will pump steroids into his existing base and they will likely become even more rabid.  Yesterday I talked about how Americans are now scared of other Americans more than ever.   If there is any truth at all in Pettigrew’s analysis of Trump’s supporters and Trump is reelected, does that scare you?  It scares the hell out of me that there are roughly 40% of the people in this country who will follow Trump no matter what he does and no matter what he says.  More bigotry.  More division.  More chaos.  More fear.  The Divided States of Trump is not what I signed up for.

1. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/mind-in-the-machine/201712/analysis-trump-supporters-has-identified-5-key-traits

Sometimes its difficult to believe that Trump is not actively trying to destroy this country.  Otherwise, it’s very difficult to understand how he believes his actions will be beneficial for and in the long-term best interests of the country. [I do, of course, understand that Trump views everything through the ‘how will this benefit me?’ lens.]  The country is being ravaged by the coronavirus.  Over 220,000 Americans are dead with over 8,000,000 infected.  The numbers are continuing to rise and almost all of the experts are saying now that the weather is getting colder and people will be spending more time indoors, the situation will worsen.

A true leader who really cares about the United States of America would have the attitude, “I am going to do everything in my power to save American lives, even if it costs me the election.”  Trump’s attitude is, “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure I get reelected, regardless of how many American lives it costs.”   That is a pretty sad commentary on the quality of leadership that we have in this country.

There is another sad commentary about the current environment we are living in.   Gun sales have skyrocketed since the pandemic began and again after the killing of George Floyd and the ensuing social unrest.  According to a report from the Brookings Institute, an estimated three million more guns have been sold since March than would have normally been sold during this period.¹  “There are more guns than people in the United States (400 million are in circulation for a population of 330 million).  In just the first six months of 2020, approximately 19 million firearms have been sold, representing more than one firearm for every 20 Americans.”¹

I was in a store here in Bozeman a couple of days ago and I passed by the gun counter and there was a sign up on the wall that listed several standard calibers of ammunition that were out of stock.  It turns out there is an ammunition shortage across the entire country.  Think about that – record numbers of guns in circulation and people have purchased so much ammunition that there is a nationwide shortage.

People are scared.  This is the United States of America – land of the free and home of the brave – and people are scared.  And people are not so much afraid of some foreign adversary but of other Americans!!  It would be one thing if there was a flotilla of foreign ships standing off the coast of California and a D-day type of invasion was imminent.  But that is not the case.  The polarization has gotten so bad in this country that Americans are buying record numbers of guns because of a real or perceived threat from other Americans. 

Not only are there a record number of guns in the US, there are a growing number of active ‘militias’ which tend to be right-wing, white supremacist, anti-government (and often pro-Trump) groups. “The Anti-Defamation League has reported that the number of militias have doubled since 2008, with a surge in growth following the election of President Obama. The Southern Poverty Law Center’s 2018 figures list 612 anti-government groups nationally, including 216 active militias. The groups are also increasingly active, with the ADL recording with a sharp increase of far-right violence in 2018.”²

These groups tend to be heavily armed and sometimes show up at things like Black Lives Matter protests under the guise of ‘protecting property.’  Or in one of the most recent examples, one of these groups threatened to kidnap, try and execute Michigan’s Democratic Governor, Gretchen Whitmer.  The fact is, that militias are against the law in all 50 states.  Private militia groups cannot legally take on any role that would normally be done by regular law enforcement personnel.   However, under this administration, these groups have grown and gotten bolder.   This is just another factor in the increasing fear and divisiveness blanketing the country. 

There is a pandemic ravaging this country and killing hundreds of Americans every single day and Trump continues to downplay the seriousness of this war we’re in.  People are buying record numbers of firearms because they are afraid of their fellow citizens.  Militias are growing and becoming more visible and assertive. So, I ask once again, “Is this really the country we want to live in?”  How the hell is this ‘Making America Great Again?”  If we go much further down this road, we’ll look more like Mussolini’s Italy or Hitler’s Germany than the United States of America.  Not too long ago, I would not have made such a statement – but I no longer think its hyperbole. 

Trump likes to compare himself to President Lincoln.  Lincoln refused to let this country be torn apart which led to the Civil War.  Sometimes it seems like Trump is trying to foment a civil war so the country can tear itself apart.  Vladimir Putin and President Xi must be laughing their asses off.

1. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/07/13/three-million-more-guns-the-spring-2020-spike-in-firearm-sales/
2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/sethcohen/2020/10/10/how-right-wing-militias-pose-a-challenge-to-america-and-its-leaders/#1808eb466fe1

Yesterday (and today as well!) I was pretty much quarantined in my office because I had someone working to replace all of the flooring in my house. (I was going to do it but my knees made a very compelling case to just outsource the job.  Listen to your body!)  I spent my time reading the September issue of Scientific American and one of the articles I read really struck a chord with me given the political environment we find ourselves in today as we try to confront this global pandemic.  This particular issue of Scientific American is the 175^th anniversary issue, and reflects back over some of the articles that have been written throughout their history.

The particular article that struck me, “Return of the Germs,” reviews some of the statements made regarding infectious diseases and states that after conquering diseases like small pox, polio and the development of a number of antibiotics, we seemed to have lulled ourselves into a sense of complacency.  That complacency was shattered when HIV surfaced – there are now almost 75 million people infected with HIV.  A group of scientists met in the early 90’s to discuss infectious diseases and the emergence of AIDS and other potential diseases.   “Scientists and politicians had become complacent, they said, confident in the protection offered by antibiotics and vaccines and inattentive to the communicable-disease threats posed by population growth, climate warming, rapid international travel, and the destruction of wildlands for settlements and mega-farms.”¹

“We forgot what rampant infectious disease looked like,” says Katherine Hirschfield, an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma, who studies public health in failing states.  “Science built us a better world, and then we got cocky and overconfident and decided we didn’t have to invest in it anymore.”¹

I think it’s pretty obvious, given the situation we’re currently in that we were clearly not prepared for this pandemic.  Yes, it’s a new virus.  But there have been warnings for years that something like this might happen and those warnings were ignored.  There is no other way to explain the lack of PPE, ventilators, and just basic supplies, let alone a national response plan.  Hopefully this will be a lesson for us.

However, the thing that struck me most about the article was something that I hadn’t really given some serious thought to before.  We will likely get a vaccine and perhaps the government will be more prepared next time, but will that really solve the problem?

“Poverty has more impact than any of our technical interventions,” says Peter J. Hotez, a physician and vaccine developer and founding dean of the Baylor University National School of Tropical Medicine.  “Political collapse, climate change, urbanization, deforestation; these are what’s holding us back.  We can develop all the vaccines and drugs we want, but unless we figure out a way to deal with these issues, we’ll always be behind.”¹ That is the political trap we currently find ourselves in.  We believe that if we can just get a vaccine against the coronavirus, all will be well with the world.  The problem, it turns out, seems to me much bigger than that.

“As research by British epidemiologists Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett has shown, unequal societies are unhealthy ones: the larger the gap in income between a country’s wealthiest and poorest, the more likely that country is to experience lower life expectancy and higher rates of chronic disease, teen births, and infant mortality.”

Wealth inequality is a huge problem around the world and that is certainly true here in America.  Since the recession of 2008, the top 20% of income earners have seen their net worth increase 78% whereas the bottom 20% have seen their net worth decrease by 30%.² Unfortunately, most of the policies that are espoused by Trump and the Republican Party tend to exacerbate this problem.  Tax cuts favor the rich.  Fewer regulations favor the rich. 

The focus on these short-term goals which are designed to put more money into the pockets of those people who don’t really need the money are creating an environment where pandemics such as we are currently experiencing will flourish.  Poorer people don’t have the luxury of not going to work so they will tend to go to work when they are sick – because they have to in order to make the mortgage payments and pay their bills.  If they don’t have sufficient medical insurance, they may not get treatment when they should.  It’s also more difficult to social distance for those forced to live in crowded areas.  And the simple fact is, the more ‘poor’ people who get infected during a pandemic, the higher probability that even ‘rich’ people will get infected.

As Donald Trump found out, a virus driving a pandemic doesn’t care how much money you have or how important you think you are.  It doesn’t care about much of anything other than finding its next victim.  All of those people who are screaming about ‘socialism’ need to get it through their collective skulls that investing tax dollars to correct some of the rampant societal ills plaguing this country is really a better investment than stashing more money under the mattress.  In fact, it might even save their lives or the lives of people they care about.  A stronger society at all levels is probably the best vaccine there is against future pandemics. 

We certainly need to be better prepared medically and logistically for the next pandemic, but unless there are significant structural and societal changes in the years ahead, any vaccine will just be a Band-Aid akin to giving crutches to someone with a broken ankle.  It will work for a while but it won’t address the underlying problem.  And I don’t know about anyone else, but I sure as hell don’t want to go through this again. 

They say that the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result.  Perhaps for all of our collective sanity, it’s time to try a different approach.  Unfortunately, no one has yet developed vaccines against greed, bigotry and ignorance so its likely to be an uphill battle.  

1. “Return of the Germs”, Maryn McKenna, Scientific American, Sept 2020
2. https://www.usnews.com/news/elections/articles/2019-11-14/wealth-in-america-inequality-persists-in-household-wealth

I don’t recall any election in my lifetime when it seemed like there was so much riding on the outcome.  The contrast between the two potential paths could not be greater.  If Trump wins, I believe the ‘great experiment’ in American democracy will continue to deteriorate and move more and more towards authoritarianism.  If Joe Biden wins, I believe that the damage inflicted by Trump will start to be corrected, but it will take time.  However, if Joe Biden wins and the Republicans under Mitch McConnell retain control of the Senate, we are in for another rocky 4 years.

There is no doubt that in the last scenario with a Biden victory and a Republican controlled Senate, that McConnell will do the exact same thing he did during the Obama administration and just become an obstructionist.  McConnell is on record as stating that his goal, when Obama was elected, was to make sure he was a one-term president.  He will do the exact same thing with Biden.  This is really almost more of a nightmare scenario than if Trump wins.   

At least if Trump wins, you know the country will continue to go to hell and you can deal with that however you like. (Perhaps it will be time for me to write my version of ‘Under the Tuscan Sun’ from somewhere else in the world!)   If Biden wins and McConnell still controls the Senate, expectations for a return to some kind of normalcy in government will be very high, but McConnell will do everything in his power to dash those hopes.  There is no doubt about that.  He already played this game with President Obama.  It will be like a big giant tease – great expectations dashed by one purely partisan man.

It seems to me that there is something wrong with the system when one man such as Mitch McConnell has that kind of power.  I’m not sure what the solution is, but the current system is unworkable and truly unfair to the American people.  McConnell relishes his ‘nom de guerre’, ‘the Grim Reaper’, and I can only hope that the Senate turns blue.  Otherwise, Biden, and the rest of us, are going to have a really, really hard time. 

So, how did we end up with a system that is so warped?  Money!  Here are some staggering figures.  According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan group that tracks money in politics, there will be $10.8 billion (yes – BILLION) spent on the 2020 election.¹ Of that, almost half, about $5.2 billion will be spent on the presidential race.   The rest, $5.6 billion will be spent on House and Senate races. 

Since elections in this country are not primarily funded by the government, this is virtually all private and corporate money flowing into the political system.  It’s no small wonder that the system has become so corrupt and people like McConnell are allowed to thrive.  As I stated in a previous post, McConnell’s push to pack the courts with conservative judges is nothing more than a power grab designed to benefit corporations and wealthy individuals.  Why wouldn’t corporations be willing to ‘invest’ in this type of effort when they are looking at how it might benefit their bottom line down the road.

The Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case (Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission) opened the door for the foundation of SuperPACs which allow virtually unlimited spending to support candidates.  This single decision was, in my opinion, a devastating blow to the ‘great experiment’ of American democracy.  It is quite telling that the decision was a 5 to 4 decision along ideological lines with the conservative justices in the majority.  And this is exactly why Mitch McConnell is continuing to pack the courts with conversative justices – hoping for more pro-business and pro-Republican rulings.   The American people are losing this fight.

 A lot of people think the confirmation controversy of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court is basically about abortion rights and the Affordable Care Act.  Those are certainly real issues, but the bigger, and more troubling issue is the fact that the conservative majority which ushered in the ‘Super PAC era’ that now governs American politics, will be locked in place for a generation.  It will be very difficult, if not impossible, to put anything in place to counter this huge monetary influence on American politics with a staunch conservative majority on the court

The good news is that in a couple of weeks, hopefully the airwaves will become much less polluted with the current bombardment of political ads.  It has been a seemingly endless stream of nothing but character assassinations and disinformation.  Most of us would just like to know the answer to the question, “What are you going to do to make my life better?”  Unfortunately, unless you are a party mega-donor or have your own personal lobbyist, you’re unlikely to get a satisfactory answer to that question.

1. https://www.cnbc.com/2020/10/01/election-2020-campaign-spending-set-to-hit-record-11-billion.html