bfaure – Page 12 – Ramparts of Civilization

April 17, 2016April 17, 2016

Ssshhh! …Still Some Clear Thinking Going On…

General Petraeus in Field - Roberto Schmidt getty images/cnn.com — General Petraeus in Iraq *photo* *Roberto Schmidt getty images/cnn.com*

The political discourse these days is so trivial, hyperbolic, and lacking in thought that we might wonder if we are undergoing staging for a reality show rather than vetting potential Presidents of the United States. The idea that there might be a philosophy of engagement for the most powerful nation on earth or an identified self interest is anathema to the candied brains of the current front runners. The Democrat front runner sees the Libyan fiasco as a great accomplishment. The Republican front runner wants to get rid of NATO and demands fools gold from other allies to maintain positions in the world that long have been critical to the nation’s self interest. The current President uses political calculus rather than in-depth analysis to attempt a policy of retrenchment. As a result, his concept of retrenchment waffles between red lines and withdrawals, disdain for his enemies capabilities and inept, pinprick reactionary responses to threats. Is there anybody left who has thought this through?

Well, there is someone. Someone who could have been President, but ruptured his bond with integrity and took himself out. General David Petraeus, who served both Republican and Democrat Administrations and was the strategic genius behind the Iraq surge that finally won the Iraqi conflict, only to have it dissolve with the forced withdrawal of his carefully and painfully won stabilizing force. The general committed political hari-kari when he exposed three classified documents to his biographer mistress, who as an intelligence officer additionally had classified document clearance. It resulted in a very public humiliation by the Obama Administration by Petraeus, who was forced to resign as CIA Director, and a Justice Department prosecution that led in 2015 to 2 years probation and a 100 thousand dollar fine. The four star general’s career was over, and the unique means of his political demise takes on special focus when weighed against the massively larger security breach that was brazenly propagated by Secretary of State Clinton. Ms. Clinton, who could very well be our next President.

It is David Petraeus, not Hillary Clinton, who is banished to the wilderness. We should remind ourselves however who General Petraeus is, because the old war horse has a soaring intellect and much yet to teach, if we are willing to listen. David Petraeus was in the top 5% of his 1974 graduating class at West Point, the top graduate of his 1983 class at the 1983 US Army Command General Staff College, and subsequently earned a MPA and PhD in International Relations from Princeton University. As a commanding intellectual, Petraeus proved equally adept at the real testing ground of soldiering, becoming a commissioned Army Ranger, promoted to commanding a battalion of the famed 101st Airborne Division, a brigade with the 82nd Airborne Division and eventually the commanding major general of the 101st in the second Gulf War combat assault on Baghdad, Karbala and Mosul.

What tied Petraeus’s unique balance of intellectual depth and combat assertiveness into success was the depth of his own philosophical development in concepts of counter insurgency. Petraeus saw counter insurgency as requiring creation of security and stability by the twins of tactical force and political compromise, achieving the trust and the buy in of those he was asked to defend. Nowhere did he succeed more profoundly then when he was asked to command the surge of US forces in 2007 in the desperate attempt to salvage the floundering US effort to pacify Iraq. Recognizing the Anbar Awakening for what it was, Petraeus presciently identified the appropriate winners and losers and supported his winners until they could assert their own control. The success of the surge was so dramatic, that the key issue of the 2008 presidential campaign was lost to then candidate Obama. By 2010, the Obama Administration, noting that Iraq was so pacified that US Army deaths due to monthly training accidents exceeded combat deaths, declared a stable Iraq as their Greatest Achievement, and promptly threw it all away by not renewing the Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq. All of the hard work and sacrifices of the American effort in Iraq came to nothing as the black anarchy of death rapidly seeped into the vacuum.

Obama requested Petraeus’s help in Afghanistan and then the CIA in an effort to contain Petraeus rapidly rising political star, before Petraeus removed himself as a political foe through his own foible. Nobody was more relieved then Obama.

Petraeus might have been the next in line of the perfect citizen soldier statesmen, such as Washington, Grant, Marshall, and Eisenhower that helped this nation out of its doldrums in the past. Instead his personal vanity led to foolish weakness that has deprived us of this generation’s great leader. Petraeus thankfully has not given up on helping format a way out of our current international morass. In a Washington Post OpEd, Petraeus helps suggest the principles in countering the plague of radical Islam, that could direct future Administrations to a restoration of stability in this most unstable world. His Five Big Ideas in the OpEd reflect Petraeus’s philosophical underpinnings he has previously described for breaking sclerotic impasses and achieving Institutional Change: First: Get the Big Ideas Right. Second: Communicate the Big Ideas Effectively. Third: Oversee Big Idea Implementation. Fourth: Capture the Lessons Learned, Refine, and Repeat the Process. The current opinion piece mirrors the foundational Big Idea concept. Petraeus defines the Five Big Ideas as :

Recognition that ungoverned spaces contribute the agar dish of chaos that draw radicals and allow them to flourish.
Radical Islamists will not confine their attacks to their lairs or strongholds.
The U.S. can not absolve itself of responsibility as the singular world leader capable of coordinating a counter insurgency
The path to success will be comprehensive, multi-faceted, involve allies and friends, and not just precision strikes and special operations.
Victory ( and Petraeus does not see U.S. self interest in something short of victory) will require sustained U.S. effort for extended periods, defined by conditions on the ground, not enforced timetables.

What the general is describing is nothing more than the reversal of the last seven years of U.S. strategy of leaving the chaos of the world for others to solve, and retrenching to the role of leading from behind. Such strategy has led to propagation of Syria’s catastrophic collapse, Iraq’s dissolution, ineptly permitted by a puppet government of the Iranian mullahs that lost the Anbar to the ISIS monsters, sacrificed the Yazidis, offended the Kurds, and seek to destroy the Sunni , and the Libya, Mali, Somali, and Nigeria calamitous infernos of Mad Max warscapes. I could easily see where it might be long past time to reverse such strategy. Unfortunately, the political discourse would suggest we may be willing to elect even more wrong way thinking approaching at its extreme, real bone headed logic.

There is real thinking out there. If the country is willing to overlook completely profligately amoral and sustained behavior from its leading candidates, could it possibly overlook a brief lapse in a career of brilliance for our nation’s sake?

Where have you gone, General Petraeus, Our nation turns its lonely eyes to you woo,woo,woo…

April 3, 2016April 3, 2016

Down The Homestretch

Apr 25, 2010; Milwaukee, WI, USA; Klements Racing Sausages get ready for their race during the sixth inning of the game between the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park. The Cubs defeated the Brewers 12-2. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports — Down the Homestretch with the Final Five *Photo* : *Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports*

The Great American Extravaganza that culminates in the election of a Chief Executive of the United States is fully upon us. There have been tens of scores of debates, town halls, fundraisers, greeters, and interviews. Over half of the state party caucuses and primaries have declared their voters’ preferences. The compression of the pack has seen the dropping out of the race of the O’Malleys, Chaffees, Walkers, Perrys, Jindhals, Rubios, Huckabees, Santorums, Patakis, Carsons, Fiorinas, Grahams, Gilmores, Pauls, Bushes, and Christies.

We are are left with the Not So Magnificent Five.

Every four years the over-wise pundits that suggest an ideal candidate for the nomination of either party are left dumbfounded with the recurrent verdict of the electorate to select someone who is anything but ideal. How does the vetting process designed to get us a Washington or a Lincoln, end up with Sanders, Clinton, Trump, Cruz, and Kasich? When somebody famous was quoted as saying anyone could grow up to be President of the United States, they weren’t kidding. The process has become a manipulable grind that removes measured considerations of a candidates bonafides in any discernible way the average voter can engage. We are left with winners of ‘Survivor’, and the country is the loser. Different from other years at least, some of the winners are not yet sure if they survived and some of the losers refuse to admit they are beat. It makes for some superficially compelling drama. Let’s see how the Not So Magnificent Five are positioned as they approach the final furlong.

Hillary Clinton: It was supposed to be a coronation. The old war horse had the money, political machinery, and the pedigree to swat aside the ridiculously weak challengers she would face, and yet last weekend, the sure thing candidate lost to her opponent challenger Sanders in all three contested states by historically enormous margins. Sanders won 82% of the vote in Alaska, 70% in Hawaii, and 73% in Washington. Are you kidding me? What kind of sure thing front runner loses by margins 4 of 5 voters, and 3 of 4 voters respectively anywhere? Where is the love? Hillary Clinton once again has shown what a notoriously poor candidate she has always been, and the lack of connection she makes with people. Add to her natural lack of political talent, the uncomfortable reality that in her own party, polls have shown only 36% of Democrats view her as honest or trustworthy, and you have the makings of an epic fail. Clinton has a substantial delegate lead for her nomination becomes of the previously secured so called “super” delegates, but she leads Sanders only by 1243 to 975 in delegates selected by voters in her own party. Facing a potential spring of squeamish and uninspired voters, and an elephant in the room investigation by the FBI of potentially both security breeches and influence peddling, the coronation may look more like a Charles I moment.

Bernie Sanders: What do you do for an encore after a life of back bencher eccentricities and contrarian views acknowledged by no one in power? You at 75 years of age run for President, and install the Glorious Revolution on the strength of voters who weren’t yet born when you turned fifty. Pretty amazing for a self styled radical of the sixties who protested under the banner ‘don’t trust anyone over thirty‘. Awards should be given for anyone who can stand the rigors of an extended election campaign at nearly 75 years of age, but then again, Bernie looks youthful compared to the irritable and forgetful nearly 70 year old he is running against. The fountain of youth has struck this back bencher on a wave of unachievable dreams of tax rates of 90%, tripling the deficit and making everything free, but… at least it’s a plan for the future. Having principles, even when they are this wayward, looks appealing to kids, who feel their only other choice is to support their mean grandma.

Donald Trump: The whole thing was supposed to be a publicity campaign to support a flagging brand. Spend a few months talking about how everyone else is stupid, you’re the smartest, and then get out while the going was good. Who could have known that the cynical opinion of the average American held by the billionaire real estate pitchman from New York, was not remotely close to how cynical the voters actually were? Now he finds himself the leading delegate getter in a party with which he has no philosophical commonality and people are starting to take notice that he actually hasn’t thought anything through. At some point, talking about 80 foot walls, 45% tariffs, and taking countries’ oil was going to run into stiff winds when people began to realize the guy might actually win the nomination. Well, he suffers rebukes not at all. The race is such that even this realization may not be enough to stop a Trump nomination, but watching the whole edifice collapse in a cloud of dust and fire is going to make for real entertainment for those who thought conventions were boring, predictable exercises lost in distant yesteryears.

Ted Cruz: Somewhere way in the past, teenage Rafael Edward Cruz decided no matter what the circumstances, if he simply hung in there with his significant intellect, unbounded ambition, and thick skin, even a person of his circumstance could become president. Well, he is one of the few survivors of The 17, and probably the one no one would have predicted still standing, based on his narrow vision, and reputation for poor relationships with his comrades in arms. Don’t look now, but he seems to have outsmarted and outworked all the more ‘deserving’ choices, and has secured the rail position as alternative to the Trumpzilla. Would a one term Senator who has cut his teeth on irritating everyone he has worked with blossom into a leader who sees beyond the horizon and fashions a future for this suddenly uncertain giant of a country? It likely comes down to Wisconsin. A Cruz win, and it will be interesting how many hesitant travelers jump on board. A Cruz loss, and the tenacious effort will have only delayed Cruz joining the Other 14 who have been booted off the island.

John Kasich: I’m No.3! hardly seems like a path to victory, but Kasich will not be denied. A record of 1 win 24 losses does not exactly instill a veneer of inevitability but some people just can not be dissuaded. The race for President is usually about seeing a potential path for victory, but Kasich is after something else entirely. His idea apparently is to stand by and see if the other two candidates kill each other off, and leave the electorate yearning for the Ohio Everyman. The problem for Kasich is, if the top two go, it is likely that everyones’ next up, will not be the current No. 3.

On April 5th Wisconsin votes, and from that point onward, the Great American sausage race will run for the tape. Its times like this, I wish I was a vegetarian.

March 27, 2016March 28, 2016

Miracles

In the darkest times, when it seems that the world has fallen from grace, and the way out has been obscured so densely that hope appears extinguished, miracles can occur. We live in such times, but these are not the first of those times. Finding a way out of the morass is often predicated upon pressing onward, and having faith.

Evil feeds upon the angst and weakness that lies in the absence of faith. It looks to declare the absolute certainty of a future, to remove all hope, and to force compliance. Faith secures the ultimate freedom, elevated from the native fears and doubts that can bring such turmoil to human existence. The faithful don’t need reassurance, because the present holds no sway over an ultimate truth.

The tests are everywhere among us. A muslim shopkeeper seeks to bridge the cultural divide with simple respect for those who see things differently, and is killed for his generous spirit. The President of the United States participates in a press conference with a Cuban dictator, standing by passively as Raul Castro denies keeping any prisoners of conscience. The long hand of the current Russian czar snuffs out any opposition to his worldview. Innocents are brought to slaughter to serve as examples of evil’s inevitable march.

A transcendent faith is the gift of that day so many years ago when the tomb was visited on the first day after the sabbath, the stone was found shunted aside, and the inhabitant of the tomb was nowhere to be found. Those that gazed in and were dumbfounded showed expected human reactions, worrying where the body was taken and who would have removed it. The truth was of course greater than any perceived before in human existence, in that the truth was amongst them as they wondered, and had been all along. Those of the greatest faith could see the truth, and those who would doubt but were open to a better world, could still receive the truth.

The realities of our days bring doubts, but not certainties. The faith that good will triumph over evil speaks to the enormous power of good and the inherent weakness of evil. In good is the future of enlightenment, love, and paradise. In evil, lies the empty blackness of a world devoid of meaning.

The miracle of Easter morning is not only that it happened, but that it happens continuously, through the breath of spirit that infuses people with the strength to carry on through the darkness, and never given in to those who would surrender or desecrate our goodness.

Have faith. With it, all things are possible.

Happy Easter.

March 20, 2016

Around The World

Lowell Thomas used to bring you the world on Movietone

At the height of the calamities of the mid twentieth century, an assured and distinctly American voice brought focus and attention to world events in brief movie vignettes presented at the primary American gathering place of that time, the movie house. Thomas, a very American entrepreneurial character, was in a strange way his own news

service, and invented many of the concepts that currently form our visual news services today. Thomas was the man who brought the visual media to news celebrity, finding and engaging T.E. Lawrence, helping turning him into “Lawrence of Arabia”. He helped found nightly radio national news broadcasts, was responsible for the first television news broadcast, and anchored the first telecast of a political convention. But Lowell Thomas is secured in history for going around the world in Movietone News, tying crisp and tight prose to sharply edited and dramatic newsreel footage to bring impact to the stories of the day, often in far off places ,to the contained world of the viewer. You could leave the movie theater knowing what you needed to know, because Lowell had synthesized it for you.

Well, nobody could possibly do like Lowell Thomas, but there are plenty of reminders out there of a world of ongoing events that we should keep in front of us as cascade down the year of 2016. Ramparts therefore humbly borrows the snapshot techniques of Lowell
Thomas and Movietone and takes you Around The World with RAMPARTS-TONE NEWS.

Great Britain: On June 23rd, 2016, the voters of Great Britain will contemplate in the voting booth a referendum decision to potentially overturn the political directions of Europe cultivated over the last 70 years since the end of the Second World War. Out of the calamity of war, the governments of Europe determined to bind themselves together ever more securely in a union that they hoped would sublimate the nationalist tendencies that bedeviled Europe’s peace for five hundred years. What was at first the concept of a common market, has progressively become more of a political union in which the member states have less and less to say regarding their own economic and political decisions. Great Britain, the fifth largest economy of the world, feels increasingly hamstrung by its place in the European Union, the rules of trade with any partners outside of the EU at the mercy of joint EU decisions, its monetary system based on the pound sterling unteathered to the Euro. Germany and France, the joint force behind both EU and Euro policies, is not about to let Britain make independent decisions without being lashed to the Euro. Given the economic events in Europe over the last several years, being lashed to the Euro is the last thing on Britain’s mind. What makes up a modern nation state, how do economies work, what would happen to the United Kingdom (particularly pro EU Scotland), and what is the effect on the stability of post WWII Europe are just some of the small considerations Great Britain’s voters will need to educate themselves upon before voting on June 23rd. Polls suggest that those who want to stay in the EU comprise 45% of the voters, those that wish to exit, the BREXIT voter are close behind at 40%. The BREXIT referendum currently has a volatile 14% undecided, so with so much on the line, the heat will certainly turn up as one gets towards the June referendum.

South China Sea: A great economic power inevitably looks to secure its economic future and defend it with a strong military. What is happening in the South China Sea is more complicated than China simply defending its right to commerce. China is claiming hegemony over the South China Sea and the islands within it, and it is not asking the opinion of any of its neighbors. The South China Sea happens to be one of the world’s busiest sea trading lanes, and many countries see it as vital to their independence and prosperity.

The South China Sea - and the competing claims of the little atolls and reefs that form the Spratly and Paracel Islands — The South China Sea – and the competing claims of the little atolls and reefs that form the Spratly and Paracel Islands

The sea lanes have been guaranteed for decades by the world’s largest military, the United States. What happens when a country such as China sees free access to a region it feels is vital to its economic self interests is a recipe for real trouble. The region is thought to contain huge oil and gas reserves, and the neighboring countries of Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Japan, do not intend to allow China to exclude their access to the riches of the sea, or the freedom to navigate. China is forcing the issue by building up the reefs into capable islands with air and sea access for their military, and the United States, responsible for freedom of the sea lanes is none too happy. When a country like China starts determining to secure its neighborhood, the reverberations can be very,very dangerous. This is a building story that will go far beyond the calendar year of 2016.

Libya: Unfortunately for Hillary Clinton, it doesn’t look like the calamity of Libya she fostered in her ill considered decisions as Secretary of State, is going away any time soon. The country was unravelled by France, Britain, and the United States by assisting in the overthrow of Muammar Quadaffi in 2011, then passively standing back as the wolves descended on the carcass of the country. Clinton’s unique role in the US disaster at Benghazi is still being investigated, but the future is much scarier than the past. The country is split in half with a General Al-Sisi like strong man, General Khalifa Haftar, running the eastern half of the country and looking to extend his control over the western half which includes the capital of Tripoli, , truly a wild,wild west, run by competing Islamic extremists, including with increasing radicalism and strength, ISIS. The formation of a caliphate with its dagger edge pointed much as in the days of Carthage

directly at the Italian and Iberian peninsulas is a dream come true for ISIS and a nightmare for Italy and Europe. In classic President Obama fashion, the lead from behind strategy has promulgated special levels of damage in a region where passivity is seen as true weakness, and ruthless strength is considered the calling of greatness. Obama, and his apparent successors in Clinton or Trump, are not exactly the type of deep thinkers that understand existential risks. It may be up to Europe, if it wants to survive, to start understanding and reacting to what is at risk from its southern exposure.

Turkey and Syria: Lawrence of Arabia, if he were to accompany Lowell Thomas today to the Middle East, would recognize the increasing calamity that is Syria and every one of its players. Events are happening on a daily basis that are rending the decisions of the day before rapidly past tense. The vestiges of the Ottoman Empire continue to vibrate in every action and reaction. Syria, converted into a horrible wasteland by marauding warriors from distant places and the corrupt and genocidal acts of its on government is at the mercy of ever larger forces.

The current battle for Syria - washingtonpost — The current battle for Syria – washingtonpost

Turkey, looking to insert its dominance on the region in an effort to reinstitute an Ottoman past, now finds itself under dual direct threat from a vicious ISIS terrorist cell and an increasingly aggressive Kurdish minority that sees a way to a greater Kurdistan across Iraq, Syria, Iran…and Turkey. Russia has masterfully succeeded in entirely usurp US influence in events to become the dominant international broker, creating strange bed fellows, but now must see how to lock in its newfound position while avoiding getting sucked in to the day to day battles. The pressure on the innocents has led to the greatest migration of people within Europe since the wars of the twentieth century, and ISIS has diabolically placed its wolves among the sheep, making for multiple threats across the continent. Iran, Russia, Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt are warily watching each other, knowing an emotional decision could create a real, first class regional war. The Obama United States, forever inward turning, can only watch, as 70 years of being the steadying influence, is going up in smoke.

United States of America: Can a great country overcome its desire to self destruct? Facing a world of increasing instability and threat, internal debt, and a progressively self absorbed, uninterested population regarding the hard work of a republic, the US is looking at a socialist, a populist, an ideologue, and crony capitalist would be felon, three of the four around 70 years of age, to lead it through these many events demanding innovative and assertive leadership. Sanders. Trump. Cruz. Clinton. That is the roster of talent that will be asked to handle this increasingly difficult world. Not exactly an inspiring thought. There are terrific talents waiting in the wings, but none are positioned to help the country on November 8th, 2016. Will the rest of the world be willing to wait for the US to get its act together?

Stay tuned. Now it can be shown. Maybe just like the old days…

March 12, 2016March 13, 2016

America In Transition

Fully Automated Robotic Assembly Line in a Tesla Factory - smashgear.com — Fully Automated Robotic Assembly Line in a Tesla Factory *photo/smashgear.com*

It’s an emotional time when one is transitioning from what was, to what will be. America, as a result, appears to progressively be an emotional wreck. The economy sloths along at an anemic 1-2% growth rate with job growth being led by service industries such as call centers. The most powerful military in the world has devised rules of engagement that defy any engagement that would secure any meaningful outcomes or strategic advantage. The political parties are in tatters, with candidates promoting populist nationalism, serving up extreme versions of the past in an attempt to preserve what is no longer viable. The foundational principles that have adjudicated so many other previous periods of upheaval are helpless to buttress an increasingly ignorant population that has only the vaguest notion of what they are. What passes for public discourse is increasingly more reactionary, emotional, and agitated, defined by the slogan, What Do We Want (fill in the blank), When Do We Want It? NOW!!

Its enough to make you want to simply sign off. That would be denying however any hope for civilization, and we of course, in our own little way, are defenders of the ramparts of that very civilization, so a little more introspection and looking for silver linings are called for.

The first thing is to recognize that we are at the end of one order of civilization, and yet to discern the elements that will begin another. In the chaos of watching things fail that no longer work, it is easy to believe you are seeing change at work, when you are simply watching the last tired efforts of a society to desperately hold on to what it knows. The current President thought he was bringing the Change and the Hope, but the reality was that trying to make people’s behavior bend to your will was a worn out idea that was bound to fail. Something new is indeed coming, but we need to understand what is likely gone forever and let it go, if we are going to be able to respond and potentially flourish in a new world. The answer is leveraged in a return to, and a celebration of, critical thinking, and the challenge is to raise our consciousness to that reality.

Personal Privacy: The concept of personhood as mysterious as an unbreakable code and unique as a fingerprint is about to disappear. Almost every fact and nuance about each of us is available electronically to those who would look, and is progressively given up by many freely without the least concern. We are a data cache to large companies, governments, and social exchanges to the extent that our behaviors, thoughts and reactions are comprehensively known and open to manipulation. Social exchanges such as Facebook have discovered people are only too willing to put the most intimate information out into the cloud to any one who wants it. The health information of essentially every modern society is on an electronic platform, and what you eat, drink or interact with, are increasingly owned by the society rather than the individual. Governments such as China see themselves as the ultimate owners of every citizen’s thoughts, and have become world leaders in surveillance cameras, internet monitoring, and even proactive policing (predicting and preventing the “crime” before it occurs).

There is no sense to arguing the information is yours any longer, the question is, will we be willing to protect our individuality, our personhood against unwanted invasion or manipulation. You can’t be comfortable with the loss of some fundamental liberties, and be squeamish about losing others, without losing them all. A higher definition of liberty and personhood is in order, and the fight for the next generation is to recognize what is at stake.

Labor as a Means of Personal Freedom: A physical job used to link directly to personal opportunity and freedom. It provided the stability of predictable income, health care and future pension that allowed the individual to either maintain or position oneself for advancement. A relatively small group of people had the pride of ownership and production, and the risk/reward equation that came with ownership. For most people, the job was simply the byproduct of a stable life and other pursuits. Now, the very concept of “job” is disappearing. Manual labor, the capacity to contribute to production of goods and services, that would provide the economic means to eventually secure those goods and services for oneself, is, for most of the planet, the relic of a bygone era. Robots are substantially more productive than people in assembly work, mining, and farming. Computers reduce the value of human data interpretation, with their ability to summon and source massive amounts of data in infinitesimal amounts of time compared to humans. What will most people do, when there are fewer and fewer jobs for them to do? This has been the primary impetus of our current anxieties about immigration, free trade agreements, and loss of industries to other countries. The very number of jobs in the world are diminishing, as the ability to more productively outsource to machines increases. No amount of tariffs or taxes as proposed by current candidates are going to protect jobs that will be increasingly performed by machines no matter how onerous we make their transition to other countries. Governments placating people with safety nets will only delay the critical thinking required to recognize what is at stake. What will more and more people do when their productive value is progressively outsourced to machines? Critical thinking regarding what brings value to lives, not protectionist tactics, will be necessary to imagine a way forward when industry labor is no longer the source of individual productivity.

Traditional Education Defining Advancement: Education has become the unholy home of artificial value and pseudo – self actualization. Increasingly exploding in cost beyond anyone’s rational ability to pay, at the very time that the ‘education” offered promotes the lack of any actual skill development, traditional means of education are becoming incapable of providing us with the critical thinkers to help solve our problems. Degrees lean more and more to dividing our knowledge base into expertise in victimhood, chaos theory, and manipulation of the masses, rather than rewarding critical thought and linking disciplines to provide creative outcomes. Requiring massive amounts of individual investment or societal support to fund further examination of our divisions – our blackness or brownness, our sexual variance or physical differences, does nothing for recognition of our common problems or contribute to their creative solutions. Forcing people to identify their intellectual development through a degree rather than an accomplished set of achieved insights or skill acquisitions has led to an enormous ignorance as to what provides real personal development. Education no longer requires rigid isolation to campuses where thinking becomes both expensive and able to be manipulated into a politically correct ‘groupthink’.

Government as the Collective Answer: The sense of loss of control and situational anxiety has led to people seeking the comfort of worn out concepts of the last century to protect them against change, particularly lashing themselves to the masts of an ever larger and more intrusive government. Once designed in America to support only actions that individuals could not do for themselves, government has become the dumping ground for every failure in insight. Designed to exist for our collective defense against attack, it now seeks to protect us against unconquerable foes such as changes in climate and equality of outcome. The result is a morbidly bloated government that promises everything and secures nothing except the pathologic maintenance of the status quo. We are now inexorably committed to securing our future health and well being through devices that were inadequate from inception, long ago destined for failure, and financially, catastrophically unsupportable. And yet we cling to the concepts because the alternative to government’s sclerotic approach is to require some risk of ourselves, and anxiety makes it easier to pass the responsibility onto an unborn generation. It won’t matter because the virus effecting all world order is the reliance on historical conditions that no longer exist and insight that long since failed. The beauty of the critical thinkers that fashioned the Constitution is that they built the perfect machinery to evolve a society, rather than codify solutions. We need a return to critical thought processes in our governance to cleanse ourselves of the last century’s loss of focus.

Nationhood: The concept of what makes a nation has been traditionally tribal. A tribe linked by language – Uzbeks forming Uzbekistan, Swedes forming Sweden, Japanese forming Japan – has conceptually been the means of nation building. Where ignored or artificially subverted, strife has resulted. Kurds have seen their cultural whole divided into multiple countries within each they are a restive minority. Catalonians feel little affinity with Spaniards. Yugoslavia was ripped apart by sectarian and religious differences once the totalitarian government fell. The United States was formed on a unique concept-a union of various peoples bound by a political philosophical culture founded on British juris prudence, British legislative governance and the British concept of freedom of assembly and speech. To best codify this political culture, the tribe became Americans and the binding language of freedom, English. The permanent nature of this union was never in doubt when America was seen as the beacon of freedom in a world of torment, and the nation was the undoubted economic superpower of the world. Strains are developing, however, after decades of flat economic performance, progressive assault on institutions, and a general laissez faire attitude regarding the vulnerability of hard won freedoms. There is a growing perception that there should not be an American “tribe”, and the nation should simply be a repository for whoever sees reason to subsist there. The critical thought that formed unique nationhood for America is no less critical today, if the idea that a nation of shared ideals rather than genetic commonality is to survive.

This year, America has determined to vote for the end of something, rather than the birth of a new beginning. The three top candidates for President will be 70 or older, by the time they would be inaugurated, and they are selling a clinging grasp of the past with promises of illogical economics, class and racial envy, and perpetuation of the status quo. All of which are doomed. It is understandable that a citizenry, poorly educated about its innate strengths, looks to others to be strong for it. It is a scary time for those who see human freedom and individual opportunity for what it is – mankind’s most successful means of maximizing our species’ capabilities and conquering our fears and darker instincts. Inevitably, the choice is ours. And regardless of what we think, history will not wait for us.

February 28, 2016March 5, 2016

Republican Party 1854 -2016(?)

The Republican Party - Heading For The Rocks? — The Republican Party – Heading For The Rocks?

On March 24th, 1854 in an unadorned schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin, a group of men came together to form a new political movement. The impulse was provided by the passage of the Kansas Nebraska Act of 1854, which opened two new territories to the possibility of slavery, allowing the settlers of both territories to determine through popular sovereignty the presence or absence of slavery in the territory. This abrogated the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which permitted slavery in the Missouri territory to “balance” the entry of “free soil” Maine into the union, but contained any further slavery introduction below the 36th latitude. With the Kansas Nebraska Act, both Kansas and Nebraska fell above that line, and the future of slavery suddenly became a matter of who could get the greatest number of their supporters in place. “Bleeding” Kansas resulted, with nasty violence growing rapidly into a low intensity civil war that predestined the massive carnage of the national civil war to come. The nascent republicans in that schoolhouse recognized the country could not possibly survive the extension of a concept like slavery antithetical to the very foundational philosophy of an American union. They determined to form a party that stood up for the concept of both personal and economic freedom, imbued in the slogan, “free labor, free land, free men.” The party found its voice in the form of Abraham Lincoln, was forged through the ordeal of the Civil War, and became a dominant force in American politics.

The party has put forth great presidents like Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Eisenhower, and Reagan. It has matured into a firm conservative reflection of the American experiment, championing free enterprise, personal initiative, fiscal responsibility, muscular defense, and equal opportunity.

The current party should be at its zenith. Having secured itself as the effective representative of the individual versus the collective state, it has achieved current electoral dominance at the state level with 3044 of 5411 state lower chamber representatives, 1,134 of 1,972 state upper chamber representatives, 31 of the 50 US governorships, 246 0f 435 US Representatives, and 54 of 100 US Senators. That last piece of political unity with the nation, the Presidency, occupied by a philosophically secure conservative, stood before the party in 2016 like never before, with a cratering government party stuck defending its last political redoubt reliant upon an unrelatable candidate potentially fatally weakened by felonous behavior with America’s most secret information. The Republican Party appeared poised for an electoral renaissance that would finally implement a fundamental restoration of the principles of exceptionalism that brought America such bounty and morally secure standing in the world.

Yet..Its all about to go up in smoke.

In 2016, the national party has been infected by an insurgency that is bringing it to its knees and will fracture it forever if not eradicated. The insurgency is through the dark forces of demagoguery and nihilism in the human form of one Donald Trump. All democracies are potentially susceptible to the charlatan who speaks to the population’s baser instincts of survival, envy, and revenge. It is why the prescient founding fathers secured a constitution with checks and balances, separating powers to prevent such a demagogue from usurping power. It is why they devised an electoral college to prevent the unrestrained mob majority from securing the executive. To many in today’s day and age, however, these olympian principles that have bound America’s diverse population into a workable whole are entirely trifling. In a complicated world full of competing strains, many people who feel left behind are looking to others to solve their problems, and are willing to trust them with unbounded power to do so. Trump has seen this before in the microcosm of his own life, using the concept of self importance to overwhelm any careful vetting of facts. It has led to a veneer of uninterrupted success, when the facts suggest multiple bankruptcies, failed concepts, and at times outright fraud. It was a sign of his shrewdness that he felt the timing was right to sell his pablum on a national stage.

One doesn’t have to travel very far back in time to see this developing trend in American political discourse, of the so-called indispensable man. President Barrack Obama has been a savant in this tactic, presenting himself initially as the everyman, appearing from nowhere to course serenely above the fray, seeing not a white America or a black America, only America. Obama suggested he could achieve through his very persona a resetting of the national attitude on race, stop the oceans from rising, heal the earth, restore America’s reputation for fairness through constant apology and humility, and fundamentally change America from its moorings in personal risk, unfettered markets, and non-collective morality driven individuality. He progressively overcame the restraints of compromise and coordination through a combination of bully pulpit and executive action that circumvented those constitutional restraints. The IRS became a tool for surgical strikes against perceived enemies. The EPA devised a regulatory vendetta against coal and oil to attempt to make the market for the products untenable. Budgets became quaint relics of the past, so that burgeoning unvetted spending would annually move forward, with the only alternative government shutdown. On and On.

Now Donald Trump has risen from the muck and fashioned himself a better, more streamlined version of Obama. Threats to those who would oppose him are now direct and malevolent. Other countries will pay for our laxity and incoherence. Banks and insurance companies will lose decision making capacity in their businesses. No proposed solutions, just the assurance that things will be “so much better”, “waste fraud and abuse” will be eliminated, and enemies will be “destroyed”. The executive can be trusted with the coalescence of power because he is so much smarter, more successful, and realistic than everyone else, and is the greatest deal maker that ever lived.

A tired citizenry is increasingly vulnerable to such balderdash. Say it enough and the seepage into the national consciousness can become unavoidable. The weak , ineffective governments of 1920 Italy and 1932 Germany were susceptible to the ubermensch argument, and the results were devastating. It is no small coincidence that Trump quotes Mussolini:

Trump quotes Mussolini on Twitter February 28,2016

Is America the sheep the Trump lion is about to devour? Possibly not, but the Republican Party will not survive the Trumpian form of fascism. The virus of an unprincipled demagogue is not compatible with the generation of conservatives that conceived the ideal of the modern mantle of limited government, individual rights, tax fairness, national security, and belief in the founding principles. If Trump achieves the coup d’etat and runs the primary table, the vast segment of millions of identified republicans who wear this mantle as the definition of the patriotic American will leave the party in droves, rather than directly participate in the country’s deconstruction. To the party establishment who have help create this unbounded frondeur, a word of warning. This particular Pandora’s box can not be re-sealed. The Republican Party will permanently fissure and will cease to exist as a national force. So get a grip, America. You still have time to come to your senses.

For millions of Americans ,there can be no ‘getting’ along with our own home grown Mussolini.

February 22, 2016February 18, 2016

George Washington – The Virginian

GEORGE WASHINGTON - Gilbert Stuart - Corcoran Gallery — GEORGE WASHINGTON – Gilbert Stuart – Corcoran Gallery

February 22, 2016 is the 284th anniversary of the birth of George Washington, a giant of history, that with each passing year and with ever more complete research into his actions and motivations, grows evermore in stature. The somewhat dour portraiture of the man promoted by his portraits late in life do not begin to capture what a towering force of nature he was, and the intensity of impact that he had on others, and on his time. Each presidential election season seems to bring us the challenge of finding individuals remotely worthy of the office and the understanding of public service that he so uniquely defined. Ramparts paid tribute to him on February 22,2011, and a return to our essay, The Virginian, is a exemplary reminder of the mettle and character of the man that the current crop of candidates dare to be associated with.

In our more cynical, superficial age we find it hard to imagine the set of circumstances that would lead a man to risk all that he had, and give up the greater portion of his life, to an idea. 279 years ago today, such a man was born in the colony of Virginia, and his indomitable life quest almost single-handedly made possible the American Experiment. There was no expectation in early life of his sacrificial nature, borne to a prominent Virginia family, and he could have settled in to a life of plantation farming and land acquisition that was his family’s mantra. Something restless and animal was part of his makeup , however, and his early journeys into the wilderness to survey land created a unique need not seen in other family members. This man, George Washington, was tuned into a special stereophonic muse that was characterized both by the Age of Enlightenment and the Age of Possibility. His forays into the vast American continent began to coalesce for him that this particular land was special, and the capacity of each individual man special, within it. He began to seek positions that would both make possible the maximization of who he was, and steadily, the risks he would need to face to achieve fulfillment.

The young adult Washington showed a warrior instinct. He was named the military leader of an attachment that was to derive the position of the competing French in the Ohio country coveted by both the British and French superpowers, and managed in a short time time get himself involved in both a massacre of French soldiers near present day Pittsburgh, and later a complementary catastrophic massacre of British soldiers in the ill fated Braddock expedition to eject the French. The sequence of events showed Washington to be aggressive, impetuous, and in a trait glorified later in life, unconscionably brave and seemingly immune to battle chaos or bullets. The controversies of these events left the British and the American politicians with different impressions of the Virginian Washington. The British saw him as inferior to the British officer ideal with his Americanized instincts for cagey warfare over stand and shoot soldiering. The Americans saw him as an example of individual creativity and persistence. Both concepts were of Washington, but did not completely describe him, to those who later felt they knew how the “true” Washington in battle would respond.

A leap forward in time to 1775, and the continental congress is desirous of a leader that holds both warrior skills and revolutionary ideals in his make-up. There was frankly little “in-house” experience to chose from, but Washington recognized before anyone that the warrior leader would have to a special hybrid. He would need to be able to commune with the common man who would ultimately provide a volunteer force that would need to be willing to sacrifice and die for abstract ideas, and would have to project a consistent warrior bearing and confidence that would assure all that taking on the most powerful military on earth and winning was not the ludicrous proposition it seemed. He played these two roles to perfection, and retrospectively, was the unique persona for the impossible task.

The revolutionary war years of 1775 to 1783 were epitomized by the crushing reality of the sacrifices necessary by men like Washington to achieve the miracle of independence. The challenges were overwhelming. He was required to fight the greatest military force in the world with a rag tag army of citizen soldiers with little military training and limited resources. He was challenged time and time again to rebuild this volunteer army as deferments ran out, or men simply gave up on the intolerable nature of it all. He was expected to maintain a continental strategy with troops who were thinking that their home to defend was their own state and not necessarily the “foreign” state to which they were forced to defend. He was forced to defend his actions in defeat after painful defeat against individual politicians who thought they knew better and refused to monetarily support the cause or mandate the troops. He did this all continuously for eight years with a price on his head, away from his home, under atrocious conditions, and with the foreknowledge that defeat meant for him certain death and loss of all that he had. He faced all these enormous obstacles – and he won.

When it came time years later to select a chief executive that would form the initial government of the United States, the selection again turned to one man, the Virginian, Washington. He was selected not for any impassioned rhetorical brilliance or acknowledged philosophical depth, but again, because he was the single individual every competing interest group felt they could trust. He was selected for his acknowledged ownership of the American Ideal through the worst of times, and his willingness as a man, to give up power when it was his to take. As the first President of these United States he set for all time the standard that the office, not the man, the Constitution, not the trappings, were the key ingredients of the American Experiment.

On his birthday, at a time when mediocrity of character and lack of in-depth understanding of what makes this American Experiment work frequently desires to inhabit the office of President, our first president, the Virginian, stands forever, like a colossus.

February 6, 2016

Reagan at 105

Ronald Reagan 1911 - 2004 — Ronald Reagan 1911 – 2004

February 6th is the 105th anniversary of the birth of the last great President of the United States. The fortieth of a line of greats, near greats, disappointments and even scoundrels, the reputation of Reagan has only grown in stature since he left the political scene in 1989. Greatness, as always, is not just a list of accomplishments. It is the sense, by friend and foe alike, that the real achievement of Reagan was that he was consequential in the lives of people in a way that left an indelible memory. Reagan secured renewal in America, which is an innate American characteristic flowering intermittently, permitting the country to throw off the pessimism and corrosion of previous versions, and restore the core beliefs that make this country like no other. Approaching another period in time when people fear that the country may be in a permanent decline, the search for another Reagan-like figure is driving the political process, as a general exhaustion for the divisiveness of the last 25 years progressively looks to unify behind a leader that believes in the infinite capability of a people that believe in themselves.

Reagan was the antithesis of the modern model for an executive of an organization as contentious and complex as the United States. The modern model calls for elite training, breeding in the corridors of influence, intellectual power, vigor of an executive personality at the height of its powers, and calculated ruthlessness. Reagan was born of backwater parents in Tampico, Illinois, and attended not Ivy League, but backwater schools, graduating with gentleman’s grades from little Eureka College, and striving not to become a captain of industry, but a reflection of the common man. The natural goodness that was Reagan resonated upon the fairly recent form of mass communication known as cinema, and secured in Reagan a belief that the stories told in the movies were characteristic in form to the real life stories that created the unique American society. To Reagan later in life, the cinema stories blended with reality, not because he was deluded by their contrived nature, but because he believed stories evoked the true, formational American psyche. Having essentially finished one career as celebrity, he then proceeded later in life to a second career of working the levers of power to respond to his beliefs that the success and influence of America was best appreciated in its people and their story. He didn’t see Americans as needing constant direction to prevent chaos and ill considered decisions. By the time he ran for President in 1980, he was already one of the oldest men to do so, but somehow his simple, principled manner and his unwavering confidence in the American dream blew through all generations as a bracing rush of fresh air and energy.

Reagan didn’t need to feel himself the smartest man in the room as more insecure men who followed him to the office did. He sublimated the concept of intellectual heft to the equally awesome power of personal wisdom and understanding of what motivates people to achieve great things. He did not need to demean people or ruthlessly use them, because he knew the gains would be short and superficial. He understood that true power resided in a country’s sense of self esteem and shared story. He crushed the opposition time and time again not by explaining to the people why trusting themselves would overwhelm any insecurity, and the people became his army that no opponent could hope to fractionate. When Reagan ran for re-election in 1984, he didn’t really need to tell them it was Morning in America. They felt it at the very core of their conviction, and they knew that he had renewed them.

To the elite of the country, Reagan’s simple faith in Americans and their ability to seize opportunity and trust themselves , was polyannish and ultimately irrational. Elites knew that most Americans could not be expected to understand the complexities of modern society and make good decisions. Real, altruistic governance would always be not so much a safety net as a it should be a hammock, designed to soften the blows and disappointments of life for those that could not possibly be expected to absorb and overcome failure. Reagan’s simplistic view of Americans having more in common with the concept of being American rather than the bonds to any individual group, suppressed grievances and blurred the political divisiveness that could build voting blocks. By the time an Obama positioned himself as a deliverer, Americans had subjugated themselves to smaller and smaller self interest groups, and the exploitation of perceived grievances allowed base instincts of envy and advantage to take rigid hold. Obama saw no value in shared success and people feeling self worth. Political power lay in making sure if there was failure, it was important to have someone who would clearly reveal for those who failed who was responsible – their neighbor, their fellow American. Obama’s over-riding impulse was to extend this attitude to the global perception of America, If there was instability and chaos in the world, America could be seen as a driver of such malfeasance, and she could make it up to others only by apologizing and getting out of the way. The self esteem of America and its people, renewed by Reagan and allowed to flourish for twenty-five years, required an Obama to restore the elites and crack America’s can do spirit.

Reagan unbelievably at 105 somehow seems younger than the tired contrivances that pass for leadership today. The restless rejection of the so called establishment candidates for president in Clinton and Bush seem to foretell however, a stirring of another renewal. If the country begins to sense there is real hope, not the nonsense of 2008, and that people will once again be given the chance to live their lives unencumbered by those who would crush their spirit for renewal, we may yet see a tidal wave of confirmation in the person who can define a path back out from the wilderness. If so, like 1980 and 1984, you won’t be needing to interpret any broken chads to know who won. It wont be a republican or democrat wave, it will once again be an all American one.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Reagan.

January 31, 2016

The Brokenness of Government

Venezuelans wait in line for food at a supermarket businessinsider.com — Venezuelans wait in line for food at a supermarket *businessinsider.com*

The world is looking like a progressively scary place, and it’s not from the usual bad guy good guy conflict. Its what passes for a government nowadays. Governance as defined by the dictionaries suggests a governmental body is to establish policies, monitor their implementation, and assume accountability,in order to provide for the prosperity and enhancement of the governed. Increasingly, real governance is the last thing these governments have in mind. The swelling size, scope, and grasp for power is their calling, and the people who have to put up with them are increasingly angry, and increasingly desperate. Media takes passively takes pictures and reports the presence of the increasing chaos and occasional violence, but is blind to accept the cause as a failure of the governing class for what it would mean for the perceived notion of an ideal society. The longer the disconnect remains in perception, the larger the risk of a real calamity developing.

The bloated government: World history has not seen an economy the size of the United States of America. For a country with an annual greater than 17 trillion dollar marketplace of prosperity, the government has progressively grown to install its brand of ‘fairness’ on the interactions through regulations. The original design of a limited government with checks and balances has been thrown out with an exploding executive branch, that thinks every decision an individual makes should be weighted on equality of outcome, and a legislative branch that has abandoned its role in assuring budgetary restraint and oversight guidance. The anger of the population is palpable this election season. A healthcare program built on monstrous legislation and ever more monstrous regulation fails on every conceivable level, but no one will do anything because it is a centerpiece of a president’s legacy. The nation’s debt balloons out of all conceivable proportion, having doubled in just 8 years weighed against the previous 230 with over 100 trillion in unfunded mandates, more worth than exists in the world, and nobody will do anything because they risk their re-election. Laws are that define governmental integrity, paying of taxes, respect for individual privacy, and care with the nation’s secrets are blatantly ignored by the governing class, and no clean up of the corrupting and corroding influence is undertaken, as the governing class protect their own. Bloated beyond all credible size, the government exists to exist, to redistribute, and to grow some more.

The Utopian government: Governments more firmly are designed to construct societies as utopians wish they would be, rather than how societies best function. The current free-fall in Venezuela is the Primus Inter Pares. Despite the explosion of national wealth and massive industry expansion brought by the discovery of Venezuela’s enormous oil reserves, the inequities created between the poor and the flourishing middle class and nouveau riche led to the election of a uber-socialist government of Hugo Chavez, patterned after the equally utopian autocracy of Cuba. The nationalizing of the oil industry allowed the government coffers to fill directly, providing patronage money for electoral success through 2 cent a gallon gasoline, and essentially free goods, transportation, and housing for the poor. The inevitable collapse of infrastructure in the oil industry, collapse of oil prices, and explosion of the black market has led to only more delusional moves by the Chavez successor Maduro, and the doubling down of every economic malfeasance. The printing of money with rampant inflation destroying currency value has led to the monetary black market, price controls destroying any available goods, and increasing enforcement of these unworkable decisions by government backed thugs, a pattern seen over and over in countries like Zimbabwe and North Korea, but it has not distracted the Venezuelan autocrats one bit. Suffering is the daily bread of utopian paradise.

The Nanny State Government: When the European Union implemented fully the Schengen Area in 1999, it was to tell the 400 million Europeans under the union they knew the world better than any of their inhabitants. Designed to eliminate borders by eliminating passports, it put all trade and immigration under the province of a supra-national government in Brussels who wants to eliminate 2600 years of cultural diversity and create a european superstate. The single currency followed close behind with the adoption of the Euro, and the vision of vast continent of a like minded social compact gave the governors in Brussels ecstatic chills. Give Greece the Euro, and a Greek will become efficient and frugal, undifferentiated from the Germanic. Open the borders, and the immigrants will flow and provide low cost labor for the overseers, liberalize themselves, and become the Europeans of the tomorrow, joyous in the vision of a protected life, and immune to genetic callings of their tribe. The whole Potemkin Village is crashing down with the onslaught of a million undocumented immigrants from the Middle East and Africa with little to separate them but their desire to be brought under the nanny state economic safety net, and their complete distain for any contact with the European social libertine streak. The various governments have determined to ignore the severe cultural clashes that express themselves violently in assault, rape, and even murder and pretend this has nothing to do with the greater assimilation. The inevitable result is the rise of hard right movement predicated upon protecting their homes, family, and culture, but using the tools that echo the vigilante actions of times past with their inherent dangers.

The Adversarial Government: Governments reacting to any political activity to limit growing efforts to limit their scope or power are increasingly hostile and frankly dangerous. Individuals who looked to develop opposing political views in the United States to the prevailing government found their phones tapped, the tax returns audited, and their businesses hounded by governmental agencies. In Russia the would be czar has used a more effective tool of at least indirectly supporting the murder of political opponents through means as diverse and criminal as street assassination and radioactive poison. In China, the preferred means, is societal erasure, with massive prison sentences. In the nascent state of ISIL, the medieval means of drowned, burning alive and beheading are used with the joy of totalitarian zeal. These governments are no longer responsive to public pressures for they have assured themselves that they are too big to fail, too powerful to resist. In the world where government is your boss and not your servant ,the temptation to use available levers of power and hide behind the bureaucracy is great. On such assumption, revolutions are borne.

The Demagogue Government: The governments are progressively fronted by Demagogue Leaders. Appealing to the raw emotions of inequity and promoting the assurance of equality of outcome, the politics of leaders is to demand the increasing accumulation of powers in the hands of a single individual who will protect the people against the weakness of deliberative processes or the blind justice based on laws not emotions. From Obama to Trump, the promise is you can have what you want, you need only a leader who is willing to take any means necessary to achieve the end result. The checks and balances placed to prevent just such demagoguery is to be subverted and overwhelmed. In a society where the hard work of democracy seems passe’ and the idea of principles of governance antiquated to the speed of our current discourse, a strong handed leader seems the easy out.

We are entering into dangerous times with our eyes half closed. As a member of the diminishing group of people willing to discourse and legislate to a proper end, we need to be forceful in our defense of the constitutional concept. Listen before you speak. Read a book, and then another opposed. Think about our past, and reason about our future. Demand competence. Demand oversight of your government. Protect freedom of expression above all. Respect your traditions, and teach their value. Secure your future opportunity and guard it against all poseurs who would usurp it. And …make sure those who govern, that they do so only with the expressed assent of the governed and that they are under the same laws that govern all free society – none different, none selective. Hopefully, real push back, and the self correcting forces of an alert and engaged society will protect the world against the dark intent of predators and scoundrels.

Message: Go vote your principles, and if necessary, throw the bums out. Tomorrow is February 1st, and the future world we will live in is in our electoral hands, starting in Iowa. The world is watching carefully to see if there’s still a chance, that in the land that once was the beacon for hope for those under the yoke, good will still prevail.

January 24, 2016January 24, 2016

Oh Boy – Here We Go…

The chaotic and unpredictable American process for electing a chief executive is about to commence. On February 1st, the 2016 Iowa caucuses take place and the first delegates to a national convention for each party representing the peoples’ choice will be selected. The total delegate count received for the winner of each party in Iowa is likely to be less than one half of one percent of the total amount needed to receive the party nominations, yet it continues to carry the outsized impact expected of a much larger state. The reason is simple – as George Herbert Walker Bush stated in 1980, the winner gets the Big Mo – the mantle of being a winner in a crowded field of aspirants. The traditional start has been Iowa, a caucus, and New Hampshire, a primary. The caucus process is of course run by political parties, and is therefore a device by which the enthusiasms of individual blocs supporting political causes can best find their voice. The primary is run by the state government, and reflects the whims of a voting public that reflects the candidate impressions of the moment. The candidates like the structure because it allows predictability in geography and media expense, and lends to as ‘equal’ a playing field as is possible for the long shots. And thus, the continuing drive of the start of the political process further and further back towards the previous election.

The people 'who would be President' 2016 — The Republican hopefuls ‘who would be President’ 2016

It already seems in 2016, that this electoral process has gone on forever. In the republican field, seventeen candidates filed papers to run, and before the first vote has even occurred, six have been defeated by the process. Walker, Jindal, Perry, Patakis – the proven executives at the state level, thought to be voters’ desire after the election of the experience light Obama, fell quickly. The gadfly Senator Lindsey Graham and the Republican Party executive Jim Gilmore. Others have had their moment in the sun – Fiorina, the outsider computer executive-who used her preparedness to shine in the debates. Carson – the surgeon who started the anyone but a politician frenzy. Rand Paul – the owner of his father’s libertarian legacy. The two former Iowa caucus winners, Santorum and Huckabee. The six who are truly left standing for the first vote, come in with the scars of a titanic battle already underway. Bush – the legacy candidate, saddled with the name, establishment money, and a diminished political skill set, forced to strike out against all others to try to survive to a two man race. Kasich and Christie – the Curmudgeons candidates, attempting to hold up the governor as superior manager mantle, damaged with the defeats of Walker, Perry, and Jindal. Cruz and Rubio – the Senators are the Future candidates – potential real electoral talents that legitimately can take on Trump or Clinton, but only after they have fatally destroyed the other, for there can be only one. And of course, Trump the Demagogue, who stands athwart the entire field, watching joyfully, as the rest pick each other off.

The democrats are under essentially the same schedule, and every bit as unsettled a process. Classic for this party, a larger fix is built in to remove surprises for the entrenched powers – almost 25 percent of the delegates are unpledged, super-delegates designated by the party, allowing considerable manipulation of the outcome to the highest bidder. The presumptive Queen,Hillary Clinton, assumed to proceed in a cake walk in an inordinately weak field of competitors, is being staggered by her profound tendency to be her self. Her inherent unlikability as a retail politician, exposed easily by Obama in 2008, has been magnified by progressive evidence of her deceitful incompetence in her time in government. She very likely could be the first nominated candidate to have to face a felony inditement for her willful exposure of state secrets in setting up and using a private unprotected server,and her attempt to destroy evidence. One would assume that to be enough to bury even the most preening candidate, but at the same time, she must fight off a 74 year old Socialist, who appears more energetic and real to the voters than she ever could, forcing her into ever more radical statements that blunt the veneer of her election inevitability.

The artillery is coming fast and furious. Joe Biden waiting for the Clinton Collapse. Mayor Bloomberg possibly joining the fray on the idea that America’s Billionaires Know Better, and the real possibility of an election resolved in the House of Representatives. The National Review Editorial Board declaring the Republican front runner is a liberal democrat. The FBI possibly forced to detail the obvious; one of our leading Presidential candidates is a felon. Donald Trump determining that whatever he thought yesterday and whatever he said today, doesn’t have to be what he believes tomorrow – and you will learn to love it.

From Iowa and New Hampshire, to South Carolina and Nevada, to the 15 state Super Tuesday and beyond. Perhaps by April 1, we will have settled on the two candidates to lead this nation. Or simply selected out such unpalatable realities that we will see a multiple party 3 or 4 candidate presidential election free for all. Whatever happens, it will be exciting, unpredictable, uplifting, brash, ludicrous, inclusive, and definitely – American.