Ben Franklin speaks

On September 17, 1787, just before the delegates to the Constitutional Convention were asked to sign the document, Ben Franklin asked his fellow delegate from Pennsylvania, James Wilson, to read his considered closing remarks.

Antisemitism in America: A Solution

Before I start, I must declare my bias.  I am biased against stupid human beings.  But by that pejorative term, I do NOT mean low IQ persons, I mean people who are ignorant (in one field or another) and have no interest in fixing their ignorance with facts and history.  Another qualification is needed: none of us can have an interest in every field, and that is fine.  But if someone has a need to share his opinions on a subject, despite his ignorance of the facts and the history of that field, he qualifies as STUPID in my mind.  And, potentially dangerously stupid, too.

OK, please show us examples of stupid people, stupid Americans.  Americans who do not care about facts or history.

The Common Sense Party

America needs the Common Sense Party because our democracy is a sham and the two major parties are corrupt beyond repair.[1]

We believe that many if not most elections are won or lost at the margins, by voters who are not bound by their party affiliation.[2]  This means that our “third party” candidates stand a real chance of winning if voters know that we exist and appreciate what we offer them.  What the Common Sense Party promises is unprecedented in American political history.

Low-Income Housing

A hypothetical.  Imagine, ...

I am a retired senior, and my sole source of income is my monthly Social Security check.  I rent an apartment on the South side of town, and I pay probably less than most of you because I cannot afford to pay much more.  But I do not live in low-income housing, and this is NOT a quibble.  Low-income housing is government subsidized housing.  The reason that I can pay so little to rent my apartment is manifold: I live far from the cultural center of town, I do not live very close to any big box stores (where I typically shop due to their low prices), I am not close to any hospital, and I have no luxuries.  If some low-income housing was less desirable than my apartment, it would cost less to rent than my apartment without a government subsidy.  So, by definition, low-income housing – housing that is partly paid for by the government – is more desirable than my place but costs its tenants less than what I pay for my place.  Which means, partly, that someone who could afford the rent of a place more desirable than mine is losing out to someone who cannot afford the rent.  And that is a solution that no classical economist would favor.

Hate Speech

In the year 2005, a Dutch cartoonist by name of Kurt Westergaard drew this brilliant cartoon.  In case it needs explanation, it depicts the prophet Muhammad as a man of war.  The cartoon set off a worldwide controversy for its blaspheming the prophet Muhammad and, by implication, the religion of Islam.  Westergaard died in his sleep at age 86 in 2021.

In the year 2015, two Muslim brothers murdered a dozen people and injured 11 others in response to the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo's persistent satirization of Islam and its prophet Muhammad ("We have to carry on until Islam has been rendered as banal as Catholicism").

Israel-Palestine

To those of my readers who entertain the notion that the Palestinians are the good guys, and the Zionist Jews are the bad guys, here is a challenge for you.  Google “list of terror attacks by {Palestinians or Muslims} against {Jews or Israelis or Christians or Americans or Europeans} over time” (this is ten searches) and compare the results with “list of terror attacks by {Jews or Israelis} against {Muslims or Palestinians} over time” (four searches).  Or, just four Google searches, “list of terror attacks perpetrated by {Jews or Israelis} over time” and “list of terror attacks perpetrated by {Muslims or Palestinians} over time.”  My use of curly brackets (“{“ and “}”) means choose one before making the search.  If you believe that Google is prejudiced, use another search engine.  

The Problems with 21st Century American Democracy

There are two, only two, major problems with 21st century American democracy.  The first is the abject ignorance of the average American voter, and the second is the influence of corporate and big donor money, on elections and - even more importantly - on legislation.  The first reason is supreme, however, because if the people were not so ignorant, they would take care of the second problem in a New York minute.  Proof of the public's ignorance is blaming President Biden and Democrats for problems, many of which are only matters of perception, for legislation that is driven by Big Money, and then installing a piece of New York City tra$h, and his craven loyalists, to fix it.   I would write a proof of what I just wrote if I thought that any of my readers needed any proof; they don't.

What Went Wrong?

For starters, we need to agree that Democrats can’t blame the winners for winning.  Trump, his advisers and his MAGA voters got what they wanted.  Democrats can’t fault them for Democratic failures.  Then, the only reason to ask this question is: Democrats don’t want to repeat the mistakes that caused them to lose this time.

The most obvious and agreed upon reasons why Harris lost are: a) she only had a few months to campaign, b) Biden was a very unpopular president (history will judge him very kindly, the American people – polls – not so much), c) Harris was

The Morning After

I left my Watch Party at 9:30pm, it felt too much like 2016 over again.  And I don’t like to cry in public (fact is, I don’t cry, I get angry at my own team’s fecklessness).

John F Kennedy took responsibility for the Bay of Pigs fiasco, lo these many decades.  Since then, what person in the public eye, especially among politicians, has taken responsibility for any screw-up?  You have a week to come up with one name!

Silence Ain't Always Golden

For years, decades even, I thought that silence in any relationship, close or distant, didn't communicate, or communicated poorly.  I have changed my mind.  Silence does communicate, as loud as thunder.  It just doesn't communicate what I (or you) wanted to hear.