The mission to come

There is a great deal to be done now that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will become our new administration in Washington. We must somehow attack the pandemic more aggressively and begin to restore some level of normalcy to our economy. Along the way we need to restore relations with the rest of the world, especially our long standing allies. That will be very difficult in the face what happened in the last four years and what remains of Trump’s supporters. Beyond those vital issues are hundreds of Trump executive actions that have weakened environmental concerns and given away land to business interests as well as grossly weakened our National health system. 

In the longer term, there is much to be done to repair our government. Trump has done things that we never expected a legitimate president to do. There is work to be done in the Constitution in order to protect us from something like this every happening again.

Black Lives Matter

After the Minneapolis Police murdered George Floyd the country has been in a constant state of protest — almost two solid weeks now. But beyond the protests, there is a great deal of reform needed. The question is really What can we do to stop these killings?

The usual target is more training of police and better supervision. But does this ever improve the situation? I think not.

The fact is that it is almost impossible to convict police for wrong doing. DAs do not want to arrest or indict. Judges don’t want to try these cases. Juries refuse to hear clear evidence and convict. In other words, the whole justice system is aligned with the police and refuses to hold them responsible for horrendous acts. I see no way that the situation will improve until this road block is removed. Police simply know that whatever they do they will not really be held accountable.

So the Big question is How do we reform the judicial system? Does anyone know an answer?

On Socialism

In the ‘50s, when I was in high school and college, the big threat was “Communism.” Today, Conservatives and other denizens of the Right Wing see “Socialism” as the big threat, though I also think they conflate Socialism and Communism. Virtually everything the Democrats favor is branded “Socialism.” So what is the reality of socialism in our time?

A friend of mine has written a very nice little book on this subject. Check out “Has the Democratic Party Become Socialist?” by Merrill Ring on Amazon. So what I write here is something of a digestion of Merrill’s discussion. One of the messages that Merrill puts forward — and I had not really thought about this — is that Capitalism came into the modern world before Socialism. Indeed, Capitalism grew out of the ancient system of Feudalism — first as Agrarian capitalism, then as mercantilism, and finally as industrial capitalism. As it evolved in the late 18th Century in England, Capitalism as an economic system and Democracy as a political system grew up more-or-less together. Capitalism meant that a single person who owned some means of production, hired wage laborers to create products, sold his products in a free market, and kept the proceeds in excess of his expenses as his “profits.” Democracy meant that government was responsive to the will of the population, usually through elected representatives.

As Merrill observes, Socialism appeared on the scene as a criticism of Capitalism. But why should Capitalism be criticized? Well, when we were talking about agrarian capitalism, we were pretty close to Jeffersonian democracy —- land owning farmers who shared common interests. But the age of industrial capitalism turned out very differently. A small minority owns the means of production and there are no longer “common interests.” Indeed, the Capitalist’s interest is his own wealth (accumulated profits), and the road to making profits is to charge a high price for your products and pay low wages to your wage earners (including, of course, colonizing remote places in order to buy resources at very low cost). Corporate capitalism simply replaces the individual Capitalist with a CEO and a large group of investors, but the interest in profits remains.

The question that hangs over the capitalist ideal even to this day is whether the Capitalist can act with a moral sensitivity when it comes to his wage earners, the quality of his products, and his treatment of those who provide resources. If the Capitalist were a truly moral agent, it would likely be an ideal economic system. Unfortunately, while there are some exceptions, history generally demonstrates greed and a lack of humanity rather than moral agency. Hence, capitalism has been criticized and other economic systems have been proposed. Here is where things get really tricky. Socialism is one of the economic systems proposed. No Democrat that I am aware of has ever proposed Socialism for America. So what turns the Right Wing hysterical is anything that sounds “socialist.” In his book, Merrill Ring takes apart a vast number of “socialist proposals,” all with the advice that we should be cautious. What Democrats strive for is an economy where all people are respected and have opportunities to live productive lives.

Consider the good old corporate practice of firing employees when they get too old.Why should a person who has worked productively throughout his or her life be dropped into poverty. Well, Social Security tried to solve that problem. But that is “socialism” to the Right Wing.

Is the Economy So Great?

Trump supporters like to crow about the great economy that Trump has given us. But let’s not go quite so fast.

First of all, it is not at all clear that Trump is the one who has given us this economy. If we follow the data from Bush’s depression (2008) onward and through Obama’s planned recovery, it is clear that the economy has been recovering on a smooth track ever since Obama took office.

Second, it is not clear that we have a great economy right now in spite of the fact that certain measures try to confirm it. Unemployment figures and the stock market are the chief trumping points. But while the unemployment figures are amazingly low, another measure shows that the quality of employment is decreasing. Sure many more people are working but they are also earning less and working more jobs.

The stock market is super high but what does that really mean and whom does it benefit. I suppose it means that investment is strong, which is good, but strong investment does not necessarily mean good jobs for employees. What we have is a corporate culture that sees maximizing profits for investors and CEOs as its only true goal. That does not translate into good jobs, good working conditions, or quality products.

What Trump has done for the economy is to head toward unrestricted and unrestrained Capitalism, meaning that food safety and environments are at risk in ways they have not been in a century. He has also enabled a gross acceleration in the widening of the wealth gap. Indeed, perhaps the very best test of any economy is to examine the wealth gap. The best days in the American economy were, in my opinion, when there was a healthy middle class and, hence, a more-or-less smooth distribution of wealth. That is far from true today.

The Green Thing

The following little story was posted on the internet.

“Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment. The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days." The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations." The older lady said that she was right our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day.”

“The older lady went on to explain: Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.”

“Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But, too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.”

“We walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day. Back then we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days.”

“Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day. Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power.”

“We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then. We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the "green thing" back then. Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the "green thing." We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.”

“But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then? Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person. We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.”

During the Second World War (1941-1945, for those that do not remember) American industrialization expanded enormously, but after the war when the production of military machines and arms was no longer needed, industries could not just shut down. Instead, productive power was turned in the direction of the homeland and the household. The 1950s saw production expanding in all directions — new automobiles, new refrigerators, new gas and electric ranges, new means of communication, new clothing fabrics, and on-and-on. Everything, more-or-less, was aimed at making life easier.

It is now 70 years later and life could not be easier, in most respects. Unfortunately, this has also come at a great cost, and no one foresaw that cost. The expansion of human presence on earth has taken a heavy toll on nature. Already by the ’60’s Rachel Carlson’s “Silent Spring” was documenting this. Meanwhile, even the oceans were being over-fished. So it is not very surprising that by the 21st Century these developments of human economies have begun to impact the earth itself.

The question is Where, along this line, could we have been smart enough to stop this? Today, the majority of Americans don’t even seem smart enough to realize that it MUST stop.

The basic problem is that we see something that we can make or do that will “make things easier.” A is considered as a solution for B. But we fail to look forward and consider that B is related to C. My favorite example of this short-sightedness is the case of leaded gasoline. Early gasoline engines were less efficient and were being beaten up by ordinary gasoline. Engineers saw a beautiful answer to this problem in the creation of leaded gasoline. Under high heat and pressure, the lead caused changes in standard gasoline that made engines run smoother and more powerfully. Great. But the lead was harming the engines. Solution. Add ethylene dichloride to the gasoline. In the explosive mixture of tetraethyl lead and ethylene dichloride, the lead was transformed to lead chloride, which is a gas at high temperatures and could exit the engine through the exhaust. Problem solved? No. Beginning in the 1940s when tetraethyl lead was introduced, the annual deposition of lead in the Arctic Icecap increased and continued to increase until lead was finally banned from gasoline engines.

This is only one example. Consider the wonderful creation of plastics. Almost anything of potential use can be made out of plastics. But we now have plastics everywhere and they do not go away easily.

I think it is wonderful that young people today are taking up the torch for environmental control and asking our leaders to seriously address climate change. But blaming it all on my generation is foolish and just too easy. It is a product of a mentality that still operates and that is as much embraced by the young as by the old.

Bread and Wine

I have been re-reading “Bread and Wine” by Ignazio Silone. I first read this in the 1960s, probably in Mudd’s senior seminar class, “Science and Man’s Goals”. Silone’s novel was first published in 1936 and it tells the story of the rise and impact of fascism in Italy. What is very upsetting is the close similarity between Italian Fascism and what is happening in America today.

The church, the banks, and the big corporations take over rule as embodied in an unlikely hero patriot. Mussolini was viewed as a great revolutionary who would “make Italy great again.” One of the first demands of fascism is absolute conformity and the abolition of criticism. Then, the heroic leader begins to explore aggressive moves around the world. All of this is in the  name of patriotism and returning to some classic era of the nation’s history. Meanwhile, both emigration and immigration are strictly controlled. Italy went to war in North Africa in 1936 and added Ethiopia to its list of colonies in Africa. Anyone who wanted to advance himself needed to show absolute support for the regime; the opposition was everywhere suppressed. Meanwhile, the peasants were driven further into poverty. The fascist hero wastes no time on liberal governments and seeks relations with the world’s totalitarian leaders.

We may not be there entirely yet, but give Trump another term and there will be no turning back, I am afraid.

The Way Things Go

The Republicans and all their Right Wing friends have a unique way of deflecting any criticism that comes their way. Instead of dealing with the issue being criticized, they come back with an entirely different subject.

Trump has a big problem with the truth. "Oh, Obama was an illegal alien and a crook to boot." Or, "Hillary ought to be jailed for those thousands of emails."

Trump's border policy should be less aggressive. "Oh, didn't Obama gas immigrants every day?" Or, "Well the Democrats just want completely open borders."

I am not denying that these other issues should be addressed and discussed at some point. The point is that raising these other issues allows the Republican to avoid talking about the actual point. They can sail along without defending Trump or the present by dwelling on the past.

We have to stop allowing this. Turn the corner and just go right back to the point in question.