Shutdown the Shutdown

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There is an appropriate application for a Government Shutdown.  It would logically be used on the last day of a government’s existence.  Other than that, it is an illogical solution to any problem.  We need not remove the tool from our existing government, but it should require at least a 95% vote of Congress to put it into effect.  When our government votes by over 95% to shut down the government, that government no longer serves any purpose.  If Congress doesn’t get a budget passed on time, temporarily reinstate the previous year’s budget.  The small minds who brought you this shutdown and shutdowns before it, vote as a “rubber stamp” for their political party.  Otherwise the shutdown would not have occurred.  Political parties have outlived their usefulness in America.   They are at the root of the mindless government shutdowns.  If our representatives were not under the thumb of their political party, few would opt for a government shutdown.

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How can we the people end a government shutdown?  Simple.  The Air Traffic Controllers (ATC) would land aircraft only (clear the skies), then go home.  In other words, shut down civilian air traffic.  This small move would serve to educate those who so poorly govern us.  An Air Traffic Controller goes to work each day for a secure income and to serve the public.  Their service is not appreciated or earned without the secure income.  It is time for you ATC folks to stand up, put on your capes and take to the sky.  Patriotic Americans will applaud you.   You government employees will once again be gainfully employed, within 48 hours.

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When Mitch McConnell says that he will not bring a motion to the floor of the Senate without first knowing that Trump will sign it, he is giving the President the right to determine all future legislation.  A proposed bill does not become law until both houses of Congress pass it.  Then it is sent to the President for signature.  A Presidential Veto can be overridden by Congress.  Laws and oversight have always been the duty of Congress.  The McConnell rule removes the need for and purpose of Congress.  Perhaps the Senate could elect a new Leader.  Certainly the citizens of our country did not elect Mitch (a Senator elected by one state only) to remove the Legislative Branch of our government. 

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If compromise in government means agreeing to ideas that you think are bad ideas in order to get what you think is a good idea passed, you are going to have a lot of bad laws passed.  It is easier to get a bad bill rejected than a poor law removed.  The answer is don’t bundle legislation.  A border wall has nothing to do with DACA legislation.  Deal with them separately. They are separate issues.  Any bill seconded by more than 10 legislators should be brought to the floor, debated in front of the entire house and receive an up or down vote.  If passed in either House, the other House can be required to go through the same procedure.  If we could remove political party influence from this transaction and each representative voted their wisdom, we would get some very good decisions out of our Congress and no shutdowns.  We might even witness truth in government.  Could make us a better country.

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Cheers, Old Buz

Iambloggerbuz.blogspot.com

"The Golden Ass"

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I’m reading a book titled, The Power of Myth, an interview of Joseph Campbell by Bill Moyers.  On page 223, of the paperback version, Campbell mentions one of the oldest presently read novels, The Golden Ass, a Greek/Roman mythology, written in the late 2^nd century, by the author, Apuleius.  In the novel, a magician converts the hero, because of his lust and greed, into a golden ass.

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We in America now live in the era of The Golden Ass.  An age of mythology.  Our hero, The Golden Ass, is faithfully supported by his legions.  “In their hearts, they know he’s white” and wealthy.  Little attention is paid to the ass’s history or how he became golden.  His meager beginnings of millions were inherited as a slum lord.  He moved on to the casino world.  The casinos were his temples.  His faithful attended, each with a dollar in hand.  The temples produced nothing … but wealth.  When a hundred faithful each donated a dollar some gullible attendee got back ten dollars, with much fanfare.  The lucky winner didn’t have the ten dollars for very long.  They brought it back to the casino on another day and our Golden Ass walked away with the other ninety dollars each time the transaction was repeated.

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The foundation of the belief in the Golden Ass is that if he can build all of this wealth for himself, that he will build wealth for the Nation and that some of this wealth will trickle down to the faithful.  This theory is best refuted by The Ass himself, when he affirmed that: Perhaps some of my personally held corporations have gone bankrupt, but I, personally, have never gone bankrupt.  Or, I’ll screw everyone, but I’m OK.

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The Golden Ass has said some very asinine things, both in speeches and in his tweets.  He shows little sign of having a well-functioning adult mind.  His followers pay no attention to this, they are faithfully waiting for their pay day.

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In the end, the myth has The Golden Ass transformed into a benevolent being, by the Goddess Isis (don’t you think the name of the goddess is a little ironic?)  I don’t know if all of this bodes well for The Nation or for The Golden Ass, its President.  The Power of Myth, perhaps to be feared.

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Cheers, Old Buz

"Leader of The Free World"

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Recently a TV news commentator said that he believed that our President Trump, in his decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement, was lessoning world confidence in him and jeopardizing the long held American President’s position of “Leader of The Free World.”  Seems we have never had a President who less fits this title.

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Truth is, the title has never been valid.  Our President has always been the political leader of our nation and our nation only.  I am ashamed to admit that it required the present man/child being President to make this clear to me.  Why is something seemingly obvious and unimportant so important?  Because it is an indicator of how our nation and its leaders view the world.  We see the world as being there to serve our purposes.  If a nation chooses to fight a war alongside of us or trade nicely with us, we see them as good and if they choose not to go along with us, we see them as evil or non-caring.  In either case, each nation of the world acts in its own best interest.  Today, that is both how it is and how it should be.  If humans get a chance to evolve, their interest will be in the welfare of the planet.  The Paris Agreement was a step in that direction and President Trump opted out.

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Presently the leader of North Korea is trying to irritate President Trump.  It is like a toy poodle yapping at a bull mastiff.  I am not comparing the stature of the men involved, but am comparing their military might.  Their personal stature is about the same.  A self-assured mastiff will just walk by and perhaps give a dismissive snort to the yapping little poodle.  An insecure mastiff will engage with the little yapper, as Trump has.  We might as well accept that North Korea will someday have ICBMs capable of circling the globe, but to what end would they engage the U.S.?  Well … to their own end and perhaps the world’s end.  Let North Korea have their nukes.  They are but one of nine nations presently with such weapons.  There will soon be more, but nuclear weapons can no longer be employed without ending civilization.  Hopefully, not even Donald or Kim would do that.  Donald would miss his opulent resorts and his golfing.  Kim would miss his colorful parades.

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Cheers, Old Buz  

Humpty Dumpty Built A Great Wall

Yes, President Dumpty will have a great fall and he will do it during the next six months.   Just as FBI Director Comey gave him the office, he will take it away.  The novelty of having a buffoon as POTUS is starting to wear a little thin.  Comey will prove the coordination between the Dumpty campaign and the Russian election interference.  There is so much smoke there, that you don’t need a fire.  You will have one anyway.  The problem with this amazing great fall, is that he may take US with him.  

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The Tripod that supports him is very strong and unbending.  Trump will squeal “fake news” and “the investigation is rigged” as the evidence mounts and the Tripod will applaud and shout “fake news” and “it’s rigged” right along with him, but our Congress will pretty much listen to the evidence.  The vote to impeach will come from the honest Republicans (there are some) and all of the Democrats (a rubber stamp).  Trump will then be tried and found guilty, unless he resigns as Nixon did.  Will the Tripod let Humpty go quietly into history, as did Nixon?  No, no, no.  They will not.  They will be throwing monkey wrenches into the gears of governance for a long time to come.  Trump will continue cheating and lying, as he has all of his life.  No jail time folks.  He will find another wife and will have bankrupted the nation, but he will not personally go bankrupt.

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Who is this Tripod, which will give their undying support?  The strongest leg is the Gullibles, his true believers.  They are the not too bright, wishful thinkers.   They intend to win the lottery.  The second leg is what PAC Woman (Hillary Clinton) tagged as “Deplorables”.  I have trouble with this term.  It is too nebulous.  PAC Woman had a little difficulty with truth, herself, and I would put this charge in that area of her patter.  To me, deplorable, is a value judgement and belongs to the accuser, not to the accused.  The third leg is that of the Prejudiced.  They are a smaller leg, but strong just the same.  With wisdom and time their numbers will shrink.

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It was a great ride, having Trump as president, some interesting cable news shows, but I don’t believe it will be one that the nation will soon repeat.  One buffoon, is one too many.

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Cheers, Old Buz (feel free to comment)

Trump's Promises

President Elect, Donald Trump, has promised that he will drain the swamp of Washington, DC and he seems to be trying to be true to his word, on this one.  He is draining the worst of DC, right into his Cabinet.

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When Trump says, “Believe me …..” you can disregard, at least, the concepts that follow.  It has been my experience that you can also disregard anything that precedes those two words.  A thinking person should learn this, in their youth, from their first conversation with a salesperson on a used car lot.  Obviously, not all used car salespersons are liars, but if they use the words, “Trust me” or “Believe me”, exercise care.

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Hillary Clinton once said, in a debate, that “half of the Trump voters are a basket of deplorables.”  A fact checking organization, reporting to our morning paper, said that she lied in the debates with Trump, 23% of the time.  I would count this in the 23%.  Trump voters, other than the fascists, are not deplorable.  They are gullible.  It is his cabinet members that are deplorables.  The same fact checkers that said Hillary lied 23% of the time, said Donald lied 87% of the time.  It is hard to take pride in either of them.  “Where have all the flowers gone?”  

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And why do we still have the Electoral College?  The Presidency is a Federal office, not a State office and should not be a decision made by the States.  Each individual voter should have an equal right to choose their President.  The election can only be decided fairly by the majority of the voters.  The Electoral College might have been a good system, over two hundred years ago, but it certainly isn’t today.  I live in a solid Red State, Arizona.  (We feed the political satire skits on Saturday Night Live.)  My liberal vote for President has been meaningless for the decade that I have lived in Arizona, just as the conservative voter in California’s vote for President has been.  This makes no sense.  The Electoral College has to go.  It is a flawed system.

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On the bright side, these next 4 years in America will be exciting times.  It will be a test of the strength of our Nation to survive the Trump Presidency.  There will be damage to our core beliefs of “Liberty and Justice for All”.  There will probably be damage to our trade and human relations with The World.  Earth’s climate change will increase.  Much of our progress in education will be reversed.   Hopefully, we will learn and never take a path like this again.

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Cheers, Old Buz, a proud member of Curmudgeons Anonymous 

A GOD for the wise

I am presently reading, The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins.  It is an excellent book, by a brilliant author.  In the book Dawkins quotes Seneca the Younger (Roman Philosopher 4 BC – 58 AD), “Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful.”  Seneca’s quote is very wise.  It is a very apt description of the world today.  Dawkins is an Atheist, so I am sure that he is comfortable with the quote, but as an agnostic, it behooves me to separate G.O.D from religion.  This would allow for the possibility of a wise agnostic.

Each of us has our own unique concept of God.  This is best exemplified by the dyslexic reading of the word god, which is dog.  This is a part of an old, sophomoric joke, but it illustrates the point that I am trying to make very well.  Picture the universal concept, dog.  Some people reading this will picture a Dachshund.  Others may see a German Shepherd, in their mind’s eye.  The point is, our individual, previous related, experience determines the meaning of a word to us.  So, a reading by two individuals of any bible, or written description of God, will result in two somewhat different concepts of God, based on their previous life experiences.

Richard Dawkins refers often to the Darwinian observation of survival of the fittest, or a somewhat random selection, natural evolution, not the result of “Intelligent Design.”  I agree with him, but believe that this development takes place within “The System of the Universe” that is, within the “Grand Omnipotent DNA”, meaning … G.O.D.  G.O.D is the System of the Universe.  The universe is not the result of some random crap shoot.  It has rules.  DNA had not been discovered in Darwin’s day.  He didn’t know that every living cell, in every living organism, has a blueprint within it that tells it where it belongs in the organism and what its function is.  The DNA is unique to each individual organism.  Without this blueprint, every living community of cells would look like pond scum.  There would be no “survival of the fittest.”  No organization of life forms.  This DNA is but a sample of the System of the Universe, G.O.D, others would include: inertia, gravity, energy, life, existence.  This Grand Omnipotent DNA has rigid system rules and they work.  We study them and try to understand them with the ever changing theories of science.  No accidents here.  Remove gravity and it is all over.  Any of the others mentioned would do the same, except for life.  The basic systems are not random.  Does this mean that “Intelligent Design” as envisioned by religion is required?  Hardly.  The design of our universe goes way beyond what we think of as intelligence.  It refutes religion.  Is it possible that God is up there listening to your every word of prayer?  Probably not, but it would be nice, however improbable.  So what is the purpose of this G.O.D?  Well, the system is logical.  Our understanding can evolve with research and knowledge.  One couldn’t kill another human in Its name.  It does not defy logic, reason, history or awareness.  Good G.O.D.  What do you think?

Cheers, Old Buz

"Politics as Usual"

A couple of days ago New Hampshire had their primary election.  In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders cleaned Hillary Clinton’s plow, every spec of dirt from it.  Or, at first glance, it appeared that way.  Sanders received 60% of the Democrats’ votes to Clinton’s 38%.  As you know, a primary election is held to determine committed delegates to the party’s convention from each state.  The results mentioned above gave Sanders 15 delegates and Clinton 9.  Ah, but New Hampshire has another 8 “Super Delegates” that have the same voting power as the people’s delegates, but have no responsibility to vote as the people voted.  So far, 6 of the 8 “Super Delegates” have cast their votes for Clinton, bringing the present results of the election to a tie.  The other two Supers haven’t committed yet, but probably soon will vote for Clinton, giving her the surprise win in New Hampshire.  These two Supers will quietly cast their votes after the results are in for South Carolina.  You won’t notice them.  It is the Democratic Party in action.  Clinton will be the Democrat’s nomination for the Presidency in 2016 and she will have the dirtiest plow you have ever seen.  The Party will not allow Bernie to be the gentleman that he is and clean it for her.

I go to votesmart.org for my information on political candidates.  They seem not to editorialize the information they present on subjects like: voting records, education, background and donations received.  It gives a very clear picture of the candidate.  Most of the data is fascinating.  For instance, the site showed Clinton’s top contributor as Goldman Sachs, several weeks ago.  Some of the criticism of her, by the press and the Sanders’ campaign, was her closeness to G-S and Wall Street in general.  If you look at Vote Smart today, Goldman Sachs doesn’t appear as a Clinton donor, but there is an unspecified lender debt of nearly a million dollars.  Could there be a connection?  The dark money, Pac Money, will really begin to flow very soon.   Thanks to Citizens United, there is a 74 million dollar basket with Clinton money in it.  Clinton’s campaign has about 38 million today and Sanders has about 28 million.  He has no giant corporate donors.  All that Bernie has is voters.  When the 74 million is handed to the Clinton campaign, the race is run.  So the 2016 race will be Clinton vs. Trump.

The Republican powers that be, seem to treat Trump better than the Democratic powers treat Sanders.  Trump gets the delegates equal to his primary votes.  Trump can still run an independent campaign that will hand the election to the Democrats.  The Republican Fathers will not mess with Donald, but if Trump is the Republican candidate, Clinton wins.  The independents are presently the largest voting block and even though they won’t vote as a block, I don’t see the independents voting largely for Trump.  Hell, a lot of Republicans won’t vote for Trump.  By the time the contest in the Republican primaries is down to two candidates, Trump and Bush (the candidate of the powerful), the Trump train will have the momentum to win the nomination and for probably the first time ever, the Party will not get to run their choice.  I see this as a good thing.  Political Parties, both of them, have outlived their usefulness.  The first small step in this direction is the removal of “Super Delegates” from the election system.  “Power to the people.”  “There is only time to iron your cape … then back to the sky.”

Cheers, Old Buz