commentary – Page 3 – Ted Clifton's Grain of Salt Commentary

Another Year Full of Hope

The New Year brings on thoughts of the old year’s flaws and hope for the new year; that humankind will do better. Usually that hope meets reality with the same ugliness of past years. I still hope.

My hopes for the new year:

Would it be possible to stop listening to (admiring) the worst among us? Why are we attracted to the bad people? Almost instinctively most of us know the difference between a good human and a bad one. But there we are fawning over the latest narcissist beating their own drum to attract attention. Maybe the good people are not as visible or not as entertaining as the clowns getting all the attention; but we should know better. Think about what your mother or grandmother would have told you about those loud-mouth blowhards. We are being conned by these frauds. We need to stop listening.
Look to the future. Our country was founded on high ideals by flawed humans. They did not create something that was perfect but laid the foundation for us to use as we seek to make a better life for everyone. Too many of us want to focus on the past, it is the future that matters. We must focus on what needs to be done now. Our leaders cannot be pollyannish, but they can be positive realists. Sure, we have problems, but there is a lot that is very good, and we can make it even better.
In so many ways the greatness of humans is their ability to innovate, create and imagine new and exciting ways to accomplish a better world. Human beings are a community, even though many have trouble believing that commonness, we need to celebrate the achievements by all that will allow us to live better lives in peace and harmony. We need to speak out against the power-hungry minority that want to control people and build barriers to our common humanity goals. Hate of humans is only hatred of ourselves. Recognize the haters as the enemy they are and shun them.
Celebrate and respect our differences. We are mostly the same, but the differences should not be barriers but just what they are –differences.
For the new year, I would hope that more people would read books, become creative, pause, and think, and find time to admire life itself. Everybody deals with problems, but most of us cope and try to make our lives and our families better. Don’t focus only on what is wrong but what is right.

When I start writing a new book, I will do a lot of research. Usually this is about the time and place where that book will occur. I will also research certain people or groups of people that will have some influence in the story. Then I will take all that research and twist and smash it into my fictional account of something entirely different. So, what was the research about? Credibility.

Book reviewers are amazing in their efforts to catch some illogical portion of a fictional story. Keep in mind– the fictional story is just made up. So, when someone says, “that can’t happen that way” or “that person could never do that” and even “the dog would not do such a stupid thing”; I’ve done my research and I know (never respond to reviews to question their personal opinions) that what I said was in fact something that could be done or has been done and dogs have accomplished what I wrote.

I’m always struck, as I do my research, how much history is focused on the worst of us. Criminals, traitors, dictators, war mongers, corrupt leaders, failed politicians all seem to get top billing in our history records. Now for sure, there are plenty of good people achieving good things but so much is about the bad guys.

For 2023 my hope is that we can celebrate the good people a little bit more and ignore the worst among us.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Below is what I wrote at the beginning of 2022.

Another bad year gone. These bad years are starting to pile up. Do you think it is something we’re doing wrong? Religious people might blame our bad luck on some sin committed by hordes of celebrities, famous for doing nothing, especially anything non-sinful. Not sure about the god punishment angle, but maybe the celebrities should be a little less in your face for 2022.

My guess is the cause of the latest bad trend is a loss of community. Much of this is the absurd replacement of human interaction with non-human connections– Facebook, TV, Instagram, on-line shopping, and smart phones. Of course, a bunch of that stuff is because of fear. Fear to go shopping, fear to be in public spaces, fear of being shot, fear of being yelled at, fear of being sick, fear of dying, fear of weather, fear of fires, fear of politicians, fear of school, fear of the police, fear of being afraid. Fear of everything.

When we’re afraid we isolated ourselves in protective cocoons and start building a gun collection. Also, when we are afraid, we talk about freedom. The problem with focusing on freedoms is that it often infringes on someone else’s freedom. People who are afraid want to destroy what they fear, when they don’t know what it is that causes their fears, they destroy everything.

I hope 2022 is a better year, but I’m fearful it will not be.

Bad High School Movie

I never intended this blog to become a political commentary. Over the last few years, it became harder and harder to not comment on the strangeness of our social interaction. Elected politicians threatening violence as they claim they are not, losing an election becomes justification for questioning the outcome—sure everything is working great when I win!

The original goal of the blog was to provide some insight into my writing for a relatively small following of readers. Over the years I’ve started focusing the newsletter more on that audience and the blog more towards my thoughts about other things, but still including my writing.

For many people, some of their most turbulent and confrontational time was high school. Yes, that high school time of grudge settling, petty fights, cliques, group thinking, emotional thinking, emotional non-thinking, tragedy, drama, lifelong friends, lifelong enemies, yes, that high school experience.

Some of the most extreme politicians seem to be characters out of a bad high school drama. They want to be the center of attention, they belittle authority, they call others by silly petty nick names, everything they do is the most important ever—they are forty, fifty, sixty-year-old people living inside a bad high school movie. They are our leaders?

How did it happen that stupid became a desirable trait in a leader?

It would seem entertainment is part of the appeal. It’s a lot more entertaining to watch this person rant and rave about something or another as opposed to the studious, boring politician talking about actual legislation that might make a difference. Especially if to get that legislation passed you will have to compromise and listen to your political opponent. No fun in that!

I believe it is possible for a country to become ungovernable. No matter who the leader is, the country will stay in turmoil because there are no solutions for being pissed off. Ask a voter, why did you vote for that person? I hate his opponent, might be the most common answer. I’d vote for a bucket of spit before I would vote for a (insert democrat or republican).

This is the sports team syndrome at work. My favorite team sucks but I love them because they are my team—you say anything bad about my horrible team and I will punch you. We are all familiar with this team loyalty trait that seems to make people crazy. In some stadiums it is common for fans of the visiting team to get beat up. Why? Because they are wearing the visiting team’s jersey. Politics has now become very much a team sport with all the associated craziness.

The only logical conclusion is that we now want our politicians to be tough guys, bullies, thugs, hooligans and to defend our team.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves…. (when in doubt quote Shakespeare)

If we want a better ran, more congenial country we need to elect people who reflect those qualities. Fighters fight, managers manage. If we want a war like, hostile, threatening country to live in, then elect the clowns, they will work hard to accomplish that goal.

What is the most important thing in sports? Winning. Some say it is the only thing. If politicians believe the only thing that matters is winning, they will do anything to win and will not care who gets hurt or if it is good for the country.

The win at all cost approach may bring home a championship trophy, but it will tear a country apart and bring on unbelievable conflict.

One of the strengths of the US has always been the business community. There, of course, are exceptions but for most of our history we could feel smug in that our business leaders were also great believers in our basics of freedom, democracy, and a (somewhat) equal society.

“The CEO-to-worker pay gap has expanded exponentially over the past several decades. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) estimates that CEO compensation has grown 1,322% since 1978, while typical worker compensation has risen just 18%. In 2020, CEOs of the top 350 firms in the U.S. made $24.2 million, on average — 351 times more than a typical worker.” https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/15/in-2020-top-ceos-earned-351-times-more-than-the-typical-worker.html

Some of the worst examples of this concentration of wealth with a very small number of people are the tech billionaires. Especially the ones who enjoy the spotlight. Many of these wealthy people believe they are characters out of an Ayn Rand novel. Their goal is to boss the world as they think their wealth has given them vision—it has not.

Without effective politicians and with extreme egotistical business leaders, we are in a spot where there is little responsible leadership from the top of society. I think our strength must come from somewhere in the middle. Reject the egoist, the billionaire, the entertainer, the clown and hire the nobliest among us who can care for all.

One big flaw. Who, except for the usual suspects listed above, would want that job?

Overwhelming Lack of Knowledge

I think what we don’t know is incredibly vast and what we do know is incredibly tiny. Why are we so arrogant to think we have answers to the big questions? There does seem to be a pattern in humans, based on my limited experience, the least knowledgeable are the most assured they know everything.

You should be very wary of people who seemed to know everything, it more than likely is based on a lack of knowledge more than knowing.

Beliefs are always more stable than facts. Most facts will be proven wrong at some level if they are examined closely enough (or long enough), beliefs stay solidly impenetrable because they are “beliefs”.

The biggest question of all is why are we here and how did it happen? The scientific, fact-based answer is by accident. Accidental evolution over millions of years. From crawly things in the swamp and here we are today flying around in airplanes. The religious answer is far more pleasing. We were created in the image of God and as such have complete entitlement to do anything we please, except offend God. We can even destroy other “humans” if they are godless (or at least godless to our God.)

My guess– yes, I do not know— is that both of those are wrong. The truth is something we cannot imagine.

Power is a word we understand in politics, business and almost all forms of human interaction. People with power are at the top of the food chain in most human groups. All humans seek power. Having power means you can control your life, live like a king, or conquer lessor beings at your will. Power is the human goal built into our genetic code.

When I think about human behavior, I usually come to two distinct conclusions. One is that humans are good and one that they are bad. That’s not moralistic good or bad but just based on behaviors. Some behaviors that today we think are bad might have been good at a different time in the evolutionary cycle. Some of those good behaviors would have been weak and not good. If those good and bad characteristics are changing, how could we have been created in a single image?

The tiny part we know about our own existence and the universe we exist in, does not allow us to understand the why’s about are beginning. We can only guess. So, your guess is as good as mine.

My useless guess is that there is no beginning. As humans we relate to everything in our own context. We are born, we die. Therefore, everything must fit that same existence. Maybe infinity is more than a theory, but a fact. The universe (or call it something else) has always existed. Scientists talk about the big bang, or some other beginning, because they have developed theories that make that conclusion a mathematical fact, but is it true?

Okay, no beginning, just on-going always. Maybe human existence, as we understand it, comes, and goes on cycles of every 100,000 years. This has been happening forever, not for billions of years, but forever. How many versions of “humans” are there if there has been constant change forever.

Our own insignificant planet is estimated (by humans) to be 4.5 billion years old. If “modern” humans have been around 100,000 years that would be .002%–which is more like the blink of an eye. Let’s say you have $5,000 in the bank, and they were paying that percentage in interest, what would be your annual interest payment? It would be eleven cents!

We know so little because that is all we can comprehend. The vastness of our lack of knowledge is overwhelming, so let’s just ignore the obvious conclusion that we don’t know anything and pretend we know everything.

Knowing everything gives us the human need of power. And if we believe it, it will be true.

Over the last several months I have been involved in a project in my other life as a financial advisor. This has taken a great deal of time, more than I had expected, and distracted me from my more enjoyable writing activities. Also, all progress on the audio dramas has stopped. My current estimate is that I have about another month on this all-consuming project and then it will be back to writing.

Due to a lack of time (and a mind full of numbers, rather than murder mysteries), I decided to shut down my Patreon activities. If you had become a contributor, you have been notified of this decision.

My next projects in order of progress:

How to Plan and Budget for Small Business Success. This is the third business book. Substantial progress had been made on this book but was stopped with everything else. Hopefully looking at a March or April publish date.

Vegas Dead End. This of course is the almost completed audio drama series. Hope to have this available on several podcast sources by the end of January. There are currently 23 episodes available here. Total episodes will be about 30.

Vegas Dead End Plus. This will be the audio drama turned into a book with a Part Two: RV Adventures. Expected completion mid-2023.

Durango Two Step. This book is mostly finished but abandoned so many times I’m not sure I can find the file.

Tumbleweed Mystery Book 2. Another kid’s book for all the youth minded adults.

All the above were at some stage of work-in-progress, which was stopped. After that group is finished, I’m not sure what might be next.

Constitutional Convention?

I have written about the idea of a new constitutional convention that would involve only young people. This would be a non-binding constitution that would represent the viewpoint of people in their teens and twenties. What would they consider important to include in this new constitution? I don’t know, but wouldn’t it be interesting? They are the future, and shouldn’t they have the most say in what the future would look like? Who would be opposed to that?

How about almost everyone who is not young. People with money would hate it, they are obviously the most important people, and no punk kids should be telling them anything. Politicians would hate it since they can’t figure out how to make money from it. Older people would hate it because those young ones might not have the same high regard for old farts that the old farts do. Many people would hate it because the young would be more inclusive and cooperative than their elders.

Okay, so that’s probably not going to happen. What might happen? How about a bunch of wealthy people promoting the idea of a new constitutional convention controlled by states? Participation and decisions most likely based on each state having one vote. Wyoming one vote, California one vote—sort of makes sense, or does it?

Based on the latest results there are 25 red states and 25 blue states. Now this can change in those few battleground states that based on small numbers can shift. This also does not include DC and Puerto Rico which are not considered states—population of about 3.8M.

Well, 25 and 25 sounds about even steven, what’s the problem? The red states population is 143M, the blue states population is 192M. Each state will have one vote, so states with 57% of the population will have the same votes as states with 43%.

Once again there is a certain mind set in this country that does not believe in democracy.

The country has never been a majority vote with all citizens participating type government. We do remember when black people couldn’t vote, nor could women. Native Americans, you know the people who were already here when the white Europeans showed up, could not vote until 1924. One man, one vote, always meant one white man; and mostly it meant one white rich man.

So, in many ways this multi-cultural, multi-race society is new. And it’s already coming apart.

The obvious goal of the state constitutional convention will be to not only stop those all-participating trends, but to kill them once and for all. Will that happen?

That young people constitutional convention would be a shocker. In a recent survey by Tufts University – Tisch College the three most important issues for government involvement were environment/climate change, racism, healthcare access/affordability. Another key issue was cost of housing.

Do you think the “let ‘em eat cake” crowd cares much for any of those issues? No, they don’t. They would focus more on reducing taxes and eliminating regulations. Make government small enough it can be squashed.

There won’t be a youth constitutional convention because the people who control such things would never agree to allow an open forum for the future of the country to talk honestly about what needs to be done to insure the declaration of independence goal of pursing happiness.

“Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”, will have one meaning for the future oriented idealism that many young people feel and a different meaning to the established leaders.

Many people interpreted Thomas Jefferson’s “pursuit of happiness” statement as nothing more than a euphemism for the pursuit of wealth. Our current leaders might agree.

It’s time to rethink who we are, and a critical part of that thinking must come from young people.

Don’t Follow the Haters

Definition of fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime (such as that of the Fascisti) that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.

A key element of fascism is hatred. There must be an enemy and the hatred must be total, a willingness to destroy your enemy. The enemy is often a competing political party or people who are different. Different races or nationalities.

Everything about fascism is based on hate.

Why would anyone become associated with such a movement? Because it’s a very human thing to do. Hate is real and a key emotion that humans deal with throughout their lives. “I hate you!” That is as common a remark as “I love you!” Hate is real and all consuming.

Usually, people join hate groups out of fear. Fear of government is often the beginning of fascist movements. They will take over the government and destroy the evil people in charge. Then, of course, replace them with themselves and will eventually become the evil government in charge. Usually, if not always, much worse than what they replaced.

While fear of government is often the start, the force that drives these hate movements is based on the general fear of the “other”. The other can be different races, or nationalities, or religious beliefs, anything that makes a person different than the chosen group.

With just a little observation, we can see that these groups will always become more destructive and target an increasingly wider range of people to hate. The chosen group becomes narrower and narrower. This is a self-destructive philosophy which will always consume itself in a hatred of everything.

Okay, so it’s a human thing to hate, but most people would not want to have others die because they are not part of the “chosen” group. So, how does that happen? The leaders of the movement create the illusion that the “others” are evil beyond belief—they must die, because they represent the most evil forces that have ever existed. They are not just different—they are monsters. They eat babies, they consume human blood, they crawl on their bellies to destroy everything that is good. How do leaders create that image? They lie. They lie some more. They lie until it becomes the truth. Once the evil is identified and the group believes it, that group will kill and destroy because they must stop the evil.

It’s easy to identify leaders who have this characteristic to sway people into actions that they would never normally consider taking. The leaders are liars, always have been and always will be. They hate the truth. They have no moral boundaries. They exist only for themselves. The concepts of family, community and general well-being do not exist; it is only about them. This is a self-destructive nature that fights everyday to survive in what is a hostile environment for the leader. Everyone is out to get that person—that person is constantly in fear of being found out to be a fraud. The fear is all consuming. The only way to deal with that fear is to attack.

But in the odd quirk of humanness, these people are appealing. There is no evident self-doubt. They have become such great deceivers of themselves that they are playing a role that looks confident and even smart. It’s the opposite. Hidden under the shiny exterior is an ugly center of despair.

The followers think those leaders are strong, but they are weak. That weakness must be hidden by ever increasing aggression. Eventually the recklessness of the leader will lead to self-destruction, along with horrible consequences for the followers.

There are good reasons to fear other humans. There are bad people among us. However, most people are good. They want the same things everyone wants, a happy life, to be able to support their family, a sense of wellbeing. These goals may include personal things like a good job, a nice place to live—but most people want a feeling of belonging that is common in all races and nationalities. A comfort of home.

We all should have the good sense to stop listening to the haters—following the haters is a proven path to self-destruction.

Where there is truth, there is hope!

We Are The Problem

The greatest risk to democracy (or a republic) is complacency. “My vote doesn’t count, why bother.” “The Elites control everything, I can’t change that.”

Percentage of votes in recent presidential elections.

Voting Age Pop % vote

2008 229,945,000 57.1%

2012 235,248,000 53.8%

2016 249,422,000 54.8%

2020 257,605,088 62.0%

That 2020 percentage is impressive. On the other hand, even at that level it meant almost 100 million potential voters did not vote. 100 million people who thought it was best to let someone else decide how the country they live in is run. How is that even possible?

I live in Colorado, a state that for many years has embraced the idea of making it as easy as possible to vote, a notable contrast to many states. Driven by an efficient and reliable mail in voting system Colorado had almost 90% of potential voters voting in the 2020 presidential election.

In ballpark numbers that is almost 30 percentage points better than the national numbers. That difference nationally would be over 75 million people who did not vote, if the country achieved the same result as Colorado. Could the country achieve those results if every state adopted Colorado’s proven system?

So, why don’t we? Because the people who decide such things often don’t want more people voting.

By any measure you want to use we are governed in most cases by people elected by a minority. In that presidential election where 62% voted the winner only received 32% of the potential voters—that is a minority by any measure.

If your goal for winning is getting one-third of the vote, do you really represent the whole country? Probably not—you represent that one-third who may or may not have any interest in doing “things” that benefit the whole country. That is a system that will eventually lead to disaster. Or maybe already has.

Sure, you can have someone elected by the minority who tries to represent the whole, but it is hard. The minority who won feel entitled to run things their way and eventually the act of compromising because something evil. We won, fuck you—is not a unifying slogan.

There are many suggestions on how to improve participation in elections but at the heart of the problem are citizens who choose not to vote. The reasons they do that are varied and many. Some of the voting age population has lost the privilege to vote, some don’t really care about the country they live in, some fear the process of voting because they have felt threatened, some feel a strange sense of superiority because they have become non-citizens, and some are probably unaware they can vote.

The country has a long history of limiting the vote. For most of our history, certain races could not vote, and women could not vote. The country was founded by rich white men who owned property and most likely they felt that they should really be the only ones allowed to vote. That mind set still exists today.

Power seems to be dehumanizing. Often the most powerful people have lost something that might be the most human aspect of being human—their sense of right and wrong. We need leaders with unifying voices, but our system demands loyalty to a minority to become a leader. We are the problem.

Have been working on some new projects, audio dramas. These are currently being released through Patreon. Interested in listening to early releases join me as a member for as little as $2 per month and you can cancel anytime. Thanks for listening! (Adult language in audio)

Prolog for Chino & Tonto–Vegas Dead End

Maybe it’s a Cult?

“There is nothing which I dread so much as a division of the republic into two great parties, each arranged under its leader, and concerting measures in opposition to each other. This, in my humble apprehension, is to be dreaded as the greatest political evil under our Constitution.” –John Adams in letter to Johnathan Jackson, 1780.

“Party knows no impulse but spirit, no prize but victory. It is blind to truth and hardened against conviction. It seeks to justify error by perseverance and denies to its own mind the operation of its own judgment. A man under the tyranny of party spirit is the greatest slave upon the earth, for none but himself can deprive him of the freedom of thought.” –Thomas Paine, The Opposers of the Bank, 1787.

Cult, “a misplaced or excessive admiration for a particular person or thing.” I’m sure we have all heard the statement that “nobody joins a cult.” The statement means no one sits down and analyzes the pluses and minuses of being a part of a cult. In most cases people become involved because they think the group offers some benefit to them, such as belonging to something, or they think the group is doing something beneficial, protecting the country from those other morons. Cults are often based on some need for a religious connection. Most religious groups probably started as cults.

The pattern with cult members is that they join for a reason that made sense to them, they stay because they feel threatened if they leave. The first decision was relatively easy, join and benefit, the last decision is extremely hard, leave and lose a lot, maybe even yourself. Cults are built around isolation and a closed world. Believe only what the cult leader tells you, everyone else is lying.

There are and have been many personality cults around politicians/leaders. There is no question those groups are cults, but they are relatively benign. I know many might disagree with that statement, but I think it is true. They usually break up with little harm to the individuals. However, the groups themselves may be extremely dangerous, think Nazis or Ku Klux Klan. The degree of danger in any cult is entirely up to the cult leader. It is that person’s personality that the cult begins to emulate. An evil leader will eventually lead the members into evil.

You may think I’m talking about our latest personality politician Trump, but I’m not. What worries me is Identity politics. This is about groups forming their political bond because of the group. This can be race, religion, gender, anything that binds the group. One of those things is political party. There has always been concern from the very beginning of our country that political parties could represent a danger. We now have a country deeply divided along party lines.

For probably thirty years of my voting life my party affiliation has been rather fluid. I have been a democrat, a republican and a nothing. Often when I was a democrat I voted for republicans and vice versa. I can’t say for sure, but I would guess much of the country was that way.

Now we are making non-political decisions based on political parties. Where to live, what school to go to, what church to go to, who to date, who to marry, who to hate; my goodness how did that happen?

One of the ways that has happen is the political parties have used hate and division to attract voters. We have had honorable people stoop to the lowest forms of political rhetoric to win an election. Shame on them. But shame on us for following for that obnoxious ploy. Calling your opponent misguided, wrong, ill informed, not fit for office might be okay; but calling your opponent a Nazi, a communist, a moron, the devil; well, that is going a bit too far.

I stopped being a republican when Bush’s supporters demonized John Kerry. You may not like Kerry, but so what; he was an American hero who fought in a nonsensical war with honor, and then had the guts to say the war was wrong. All the nationalist, warmongers hated him for his honesty. The Bush followers created the false narrative that his heroism was fake. False medals, fake injuries all to benefit their draft dodging candidate. That was too much for me, I became a democrat. Now I’m leaning independent, which is no-party.

Is it time to junk this two-party charade? Maybe! The two-party system was thought to limit the extremes gaining power, because the party leaders would make sure the nuts could not win. That’s not working, now the party leaders are people who previous party leaders would have kept on the sidelines.

At least one of the political parties has lost interest in democracy. If you do not believe in majority rule you do not believe in much of anything, except power. If I have the power, I will do whatever I want, and getting that power is the most important thing. The ends justify the means. If those are your beliefs, what kind of Constitution would you write. It sure wouldn’t be ours.

Groups who only want power will always turn to violence. Ugly rhetoric will only go so far, when your enemy is the devil, you must kill the evil to make the world a better place.

I doubt this current trend can be reversed without some major changes. I think the best would be doing away with party affiliations. How would that work, not sure? There still needs to be some controls on some aspects of running for office, but at this point those controls are in the wrong hands. Maybe no controls would be better.

If we really believe in democracy, maybe it’s time to try it.

Eliminate the Electoral College.
Eliminate District lines drawn by people. Have a national computer model that draws the lines in equal squares as best as possible to divide the state in standard shapes with the appropriate number of people.
Eliminate Party Affiliation Registration.
Establish Senators on a scale related to population. 2 senators for each state, 3 for states with population of 5M-10M, 4 for states with populations of 10M or more. (I just made up those numbers without much thought)
Establish a Cabinet Position for Development of Rural America. We need to better utilize the rural assets that are underutilized today. Remote work can help build better jobs in rural areas.
Place all military power under a new quintet made up of President, Chief Justice, Speaker of the House, Majority Leader of the Senate, and Minority Leader of the Senate. Majority rules, use of nuclear power takes a unanimous decision. No one person should ever have the power to destroy the world.
Supreme Court Justices are limited to one 10-year term.
All Federal Judges are limited to one 15-year term.
All Federal positions are age limited. Must be X age (can vary by position) to run and no one older than seventy-five can run for election.
Create a subsidy much like social security for people in their twenties. This would have free medical care (Medicare) and a first house benefit. The monthly amount would be a standard (say $1K per month from age 21 to 29). The one-time housing allowance would be a $25K down payment allowance and a reduced interest rate (or no interest) for the first 10 years of the mortgage.
Establish with clarity the separation of church and state. Eliminate all tax advantages for religious organizations that promote political agendas.

There’s lots more of that kind of stuff, I’m sure you’ve got some ideas.

Will any of that happen? Probably not. We in effect have minority rule and that minority is not going to give up power; and will seek even more power. Beware of the righteous.

Power and Wealth

My parents were church going people, in a casual way. For many years I accompanied them to various church activities. I was never comfortable, but always felt welcomed. The fact that I could not connect never bothered me. These were good people doing mostly good things and living their lives in good ways. What could be wrong with that?

After my parents retired, they went from casual church goers to dedicated church members. Even that increased involvement seemed good and positive. It became their most important activity and benefited them enormously. During that time my father’s political views become more focused with an increased element of hate. I wasn’t sure if that was the TV news shows he chose to watch, or some other reasons. I even wondered about his increased involvement with church. Still, it wasn’t a “real” problem.

I was on the phone with a friend of mine when we heard what had to be a bomb. A very big bomb. It was 1995, he lived in Oklahoma City. I heard it in his voice, he was scared; something horrible had just happened very close to his house. I was in New Mexico at that time, and had heard the noise over the phone, but he was within a few blocks and felt the blast physically. Watching the news reports of that awful tragedy made me sick. Killing kids because your head is screwed up and you hate the government felt like something no human would do. Of course, that would be ignoring the long history of such mindless killing in the name of something, or nothing; based on hate.

Why do humans hate other humans so easily? The answer for me has always been politics and religion.

Politics, at least in the US, is the act of governing ourselves. Why would that become so destructive as to promote killing? The US political system has a lot of flaws. Those flaws are being magnified as our world changes, but they have always been there. Our basis for our self-governance is a declaration of independence and a constitution which were hammered out more than a couple of hundred years ago by men who were all white, mostly wealthy land and slave owners who had vested interests in breaking away from England, but at the same time retaining much of the political power for themselves. There was no universal agreement on how to achieve those goals so there was a lot of compromise, which is not a bad thing.

So did they have a vision on how things would be 250 years later and incorporate that into those documents—of course not! Most people can’t imagine what the world will be like ten years from now, much less 250.

What binds politics and religion is power and wealth. In the US we govern ourselves, but we choose people to lead us. Those leaders are given power which often turns into wealth. Religious leaders have power and have often turned that power into vast wealth.

That power and wealth creates the haves and the have nots. It is the hate of the have nots that drives people to violence. The status struggle dominates much of our existence and leads to strange outcomes. Why is it so important to be important, or powerful or rich?

Religion would seem to be the counterbalance to the human desire to be on top. Religion often says the poor man wins—but at the human level the poor man does not feel like a winner. Even religious leaders don’t seem to believe their own preaching.

I know that government and religion are not evil. It is that some people in those institutions become greedy for power and wealth.

It could be large groups of people cannot agree on how to self-govern. There does seem to be a pattern where the people full of the most hatred want to be led by the loudest person in the room, rather than the best. The strongest rather than the brightest. We still pick our leaders based on the best defender of the herd, rather than the best thinker. Might make sense to stop that.

My father hated more at the end of his life than he had during his life. Could be that is an aging process and the inevitable result of facing death. Or was it religion or politics. I don’t know. I do know that it was not pleasant to watch. He seemed to think the bombing in Oklahoma City, where he lived, was due to evil forces in the government who wanted to take away our religious freedoms. He also thought the country was being ruined by minorities and immigrants. It was the first time I heard those type of comments. The father who I thought cared about and loved everyone, now hated at a level that seemed unreal and sad.

Old People Stop the Bullying

At a certain age it is normal to compare how things are today with some past time, usually a time in your head when things were good—whatever good means. Of course, we all know that most of that comparison is false because we don’t remember things the way they actually were. Something in the brain manages to filter out a lot of the unpleasant stuff, leaving us with this sort of ideal world that never existed. So now in the present, we take our false memory and compare it to today’s stark reality. The past always wins. Except if you’re young.

I’ve said many times that the young need to be more involved in politics. Not because they know more, usually they know less—it’s because they are future focused. The young don’t dwell in the ideal past, they seek the better future. That is a good reason to have the young participate more in running things.

The U.S. is mostly run by people staring death in the face. Their future is bleak and frightening. Hang on for dear life to remain relevant and alive. Most of the old leadership needs to have the good sense to retire and leave the world to people who are more attuned to the future rather than the past. Give up power to make a better world.

I never had much power. Might be because I didn’t want power. I just don’t understand why people seem to need power over people they don’t give a shit about. It’s easy to say money drives the need for power, but it’s clear that’s not the only motivator. Power seems to inflate people beyond recognition. They become a caricature of what a leader is supposed to be. Hanging onto power like it’s a drug. I can’t give up power, I will die!

As a country we’ve known this forever. It is a unique person who willingly gives up power to the next generation. If those unique people are the good people, that would seem to suggest the ones who hang on to power are the bad people. I think in many ways they are. The rationalization, of course, is that they are the best people to handle the current crisis. And there is always a current crisis. Ego trumps everything.

We need age limits. Okay that just pissed off a bunch of old people. Well sorry, but it is the thing to do. Age limits on judges, age limits on senators, congressmen, presidents—you can’t be president when you’re too young, nor when you’re too old.

My reasoning for this is not ability. There are many older people perfectly capable of screwing things up as well as a forty-year-old. It’s not ability. It is giving up power to the next in line. This would not be a requirement if we saw a pattern of people in their seventies saying, it is time to pass the reins. But that is not what we see. The most powerful hang on for dear life. Their grip is weak, the mind is a bit slowed, but the thirst for power is forever strong.

If the young were in power (in this context that means mostly middle age), they should turn to the very young (teens and twenties) and ask them what they want. Have a constitutional convention and let the twenty somethings write a whole new approach—and listen to what they have to say. Wouldn’t that be interesting to see what the young really think this country is about?

I’ll bet a whole bunch of what their parents and grandparents think is important doesn’t mean a thing to them. I’ll bet they see the world and their future in it from an entirely different point of view.

Old people stop the bullying. Give somebody else a chance to screw things up (or not!)

New kid’s mystery book will be published tomorrow May 10th. Check it out!

Still Crazy After All These Years

There are some very public people who seem to feel that they are blameless, even if caught red-handed. Some official in North or South Dakota ran down a guy and killed him, not his fault. Some people plotted to kill a governor, but they were encouraged by a mole, not their fault. We see this a lot, not too many people taking personal responsibility for their actions. I used to work with a guy who had constant problems with his computer, he always asked if there was something wrong with my computer, like it had infected his, not his fault.

That contrasts with my memory of my parents and grandparents. In my mother’s world if something went wrong with her kids, it was always her fault. While that might be noble it was not logical, since she did not do what her dumb kids did that was wrong. It just seemed like people used to not only accept personal responsibility for their own actions but parents, grandparents, even the neighbors, accepted responsibility for others because they had not watched them closer, or taught them better, or a long list of reasons.

Someone being contrite and owning up to their shortcomings would be unusual. The most often used tactic for being caught doing something illegal, or embarrassing or just plain stupid, is to lie.

Lying is the required skill for most who live in the public eye. “Senator, we have you on video saying all your constituents are dumber than dirt.”

“Not me. That video is fake. I love my people. You media people make me sick, you are all alike, out to punish us true patriots. Fake news, you lying reporter bastard.”

“I support Senator Blowhard, because he is being attacked by the elite media. Senator Blowhard understands my needs here in Podunkville, and I will fight to the death for his right to protect our country!”

Fake news has officially been defined as any news you don’t like. The truth is now whatever benefits you the most.

With the mind-blowing audacity of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, we now have a nuclear power country acting like one of our two-bit politicians. If I have the power, I can do whatever in the hell I want to do. That can mean I will kill thousands (or could it be millions) because I’m pissed.

Without objective truth the world will descend into the ugly world of “might makes right”. The craziest people will gain power, while the more sensible ones will be called crazy. Anyone who doesn’t want to join in the hate will be called a coward, a traitor, a madman. All those words will be hurled by cowards, traitors, and madmen.

Nuclear weapons and climate change could mean the end of the world as we know it. It seems like it was just weeks ago we were living in a world where the crazies were just a side-show, providing entertainment as we moved along in our mundane lives. Be assured, if crazy people are in charge, crazy things will happen.

The first thing that must stop is lying. People who lie cannot be leaders. People who lie cannot be trusted. Lying is the ultimate sin leading to destruction.

My mother was not a world wise person. She did, however, know that the difference between good people and bad people was lying and not taking responsibility for your own actions.

Most of us know what is right but will be conned by liars and hustlers anyway.

Now I sit by my window

And I watch the cars

I fear I’ll do some damage

One fine day

But I would not be convicted

By a jury of my peers

Still crazy after all these years

Still crazy

Still crazy after all these years