Author: Paul

There is a song in “Fiddler on the Roof” that begins with the words “If I were a rich man…” And goes on to describe how the accumulation of wealth makes a person smarter. The richer you get the smarter you are. People respect your opinion if you’re rich. You get extra privileges in society. You become eligible to join the ruling class. Suddenly, you know more about education than anyone else. You want more private and charter schools so parents will have more choices about where to send their kids to school. Never mind that extensive research by unbiased institutions has shown that charter and private schools produce education outcomes no better – and in some cases not as good – as our lowly, underfunded public schools. Could it be that public schools are more likely to be staffed by experienced and dedicated educators who teach for the love of teaching? There are people who really do know what works and what does not work in educating children. We should listen to them, not to the big money reformers.

Could there be a more flagrant action (even for a cabal known worldwide for their flagrancy), than to fire the person conducting an investigation which just might uncover something the cabal would prefer not see the light of day?

Here are two recent quotes from vice president Mike Pence, and if they don’t scare the hell out of you they should: “the age of strategic patience is over.” And “the Shield stands guard and the sword stands ready.” Mike Pence usually comes across as a kind of pansy, but he is putting on the sternest face he can and spouting warnings designed to scare North Korea into abandoning its nuclear and missile development. (Mike would also like to buff up his own tough-guy image.) Such posturing may or may not scare the tubby little dictator with the funny hairdo, but it should really scare Americans who would just as soon not see us involved in another war of any kind. No one really wins a war. Everyone loses, not the least, all the innocent civilians caught in the crossfire and bombings. Now is a time for more, not less, patience. We should back off and keep the ball in North Korea’s court, continuing to build our own defenses, but being careful not to provoke North Korea into making that first fatal mistake.

Partisan politics is like a wet blanket, insinuating itself into every issue, every activity of government. The extreme application of partisanship so far observed in the Trump administration presages nothing but constant dissension, bickering, and obstruction, based not on the merits and specifics of any issue involved, but on the purely partisan prejudice of the individuals involved. Now that the Republicans are in complete and total control of every aspect of federal and many state governments, it appears likely some of the most draconian, far-out ideologies are going to be forced on the American public, even though far less than a majority of Americans voted for Trump and his agenda. We have already seen a good sample of the right wing mentality in their attempt at repeal and replace. Republicans actually thought it was perfectly okay to deprive millions of low income people of their health insurance on one hand, while giving billions in tax credits to wealthy Americans with the other hand. If we could just, somehow, get Republicans to think more like citizens of the USA rather than as members of the Republican Party, maybe we could discover a middle ground more beneficial to everyone involved.

The Wall. The Great Wall. The Beautiful Wall. To secure our borders so they say. “A country is not a country without secure borders to keep out the crooks and drugs.” Some would say, however, that a combination of enhanced border patrols, up-to- date surveillance technology, and strong fencing will do every bit as well as a 2000 mile, multibillion dollar wall. And there are those who are making book on how many tunnels will be dug during its first year of completion, and how many ladders will be for sale on the Mexican side of the Wall.

Considering the number and magnitude of promises “the Donald” made during the campaign and continues making since being selected by the Electoral College, it is obvious there is a huge legislative agenda awaiting action by the new administration. Huge! But there is so much “spy stuff” and chairman Nunes’ shenanigans hogging the headlines it leaves the administration playing whack-a-mole and desperately searching for a way to change the subject. Aha! What have the Republicans been warning us about since 2008? What has been the object of a concentrated, organized, heavily-financed hate campaign designed to create the perception of a clear and present danger to be vigorously fought at every opportunity? (And, by the way, what can the administration do to divert attention from all these distractions?) The answer: find a real demon that “the Donald” can smack all by himself with presidential orders. and there it is, Obama! Obama, a bottomless reservoir of targets for the Donald’s tweets.Trump can cash in on all the built-up hate and fear that true Republicans must still feel after all the work they put in to make Obama a genuine bogeyman. Look for more and more Obama bashing whenever the Donald gets caught in one of his little exaggerations or “alternate facts”.

The Society of Actuaries has helpfully shined a light on the ignorance-based provision for interstate sale of health insurance, which the Republicans keep touting as an advantage of the A H A C. In the words of the actuaries, such a provision would create “a race to the bottom.” The idea was to introduce price competition into the health insurance market. Surprise! There is already substantial price competition in the insurance market. There is also already competition among interstate insurers, but with one key condition which the ignorant GOP wanted desperately to eliminate. That condition requires that any insurance contract must be approved in advance by each state where it is to be sold. Every state has its own Insurance Commissioner, none of whom are beholden to Washington DC. It is doubtful that very many of these independent commissioners would approve any of the junk insurance policies that would be dumped on the market if the Republicans got their way.

Say it isn’t so! Please don’t tell me there is no one in the Republican party who can see through this whole Trump charade. Surely, there are thinking Republicans who recognize the importance of government controls on unfettered capitalists such as the Robert-Rubin-type that triggered the housing meltdown. Who but the federal government can regulate the extraction industry dumping of toxic waste in our waterways? And Republicans should know as well as anyone why each state has an Insurance Commissioner whose function it is to control the sale of junk insurance policies: auto, home, and health. You have no idea what kind of stuff that gets approved in some states that should never be allowed to go national. But uninformed Republicans seem to think interstate sale of insurance policies would solve some kind of pricing problem. It would not. It would only create a race to the bottom. People would buy insurance policies thinking they were covered, and only find out otherwise when they were forced to read the fine print.

Adolph Hitler had a whole section of his government devoted to propaganda, headed by Herr Goebbels. Donald Trump doesn’t need a propaganda department. He has Rupert Murdoch, whose media empire Goebbels would have killed to own.

Paul Ryan says “Republicans just earned a mandate. We are going to hit the ground running.” The mandate part is simply baloney. The Donald was shoehorned into the White House by the quirkiness of the Electoral College. He lost the popular vote by almost three million. That is really a mandate for Clinton. Trump and Ryan and all the others that cannot resist the opportunity to gloat should be reminded of this fact every time they use the Trump victory as justification for one of their antisocial moves. As far as “hitting the ground running”, it’s beginning to look more like “spinning wheels” in Ryan’s case.