Lying is Legal

Lying (you KNOW you are telling an untruth) is a Constitutional RIGHT guaranteed by the “freedom of speech” clause in the Constitution’s 1st Amendment.  If freedom of speech doesn’t protect a lie, what does it protect?  2+2=4?  The Earth is round?  The truth rarely needs protection.

But there are “exceptions” to our right to lie.  Freedom of speech does NOT protect perjury, which is telling a lie under oath, before Congress, or in a legal contract.  Freedom of speech does NOT protect slander or libel or defamation which are lies about another person that are deliberately malicious and are spoken or written with a clear intent to damage another person, his reputation or his finances (but public figures are not protected by libel and slander laws, an interesting exception that president Trump wants to undo – for himself).  Freedom of speech does NOT protect shouting fire in a crowded theater.  Or threats or incitements to violence.  Or conspiracy to commit a crime.  Or obscenity.  Or plagiarism.  All President Trump’s lies are legal as he is not under oath.  What a list, and there are a few more.

Bernie Sanders on Socialism

A close friend of mine is a supporter of Bernie Sanders for president.  He thinks that Sanders could message better.  So, he wrote Sanders a speech that explains Sanders' notion of socialism.  Here it is.

Hello, everyone, and thank you for coming.

I am running to be the Democratic candidate for President of the United States in 2020. Yes, your Democratic candidate, even though the party I have been aligned with for all these years in the breathtakingly wonderful state of Vermont is called the Democratic Socialist party.

Does Big Money Always Win Elections?

Of course not, as incumbency typically trumps big money campaigning. Many voters prefer the devil they know! 

Nevertheless, one of the legs of the Democracy Movement is that money is not a form of speech that is protected by the First Amendment’s free speech clause (“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press”).

Boredom

Are you ever bored? Is boredom a recurrent problem for you? 

The mind is always running, and it wants stuff to think about. When all it can think about is “I have nothing to think about,” that is boredom. When all it can think about is “I have nothing to do,” that is boredom. Many of us cope with boredom by dulling the mind’s insistence on thinking by taking drugs, by drinking alcohol, by watching TV, by playing solitaire or by watching our smartphone waiting for the universe to talk to us.

From the Earth to the Moon

Exactly five decades ago, on July 20th, 1969 at 02:56 UTC, Commander Neil Armstrong, Jr. set foot on the Moon, the first human being ever to plant his feet solidly on another planet or planet-like object. This event was set in motion eight years before, on May 25th, 1961, when President John F Kennedy spoke these words: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.” 

The Space Race (between the USSR and the USA) began the day that Americans heard the radio beeps of an unmanned space vehicle called Sputnik on October 4th, 1957. Less than a year later, July 29th, 1958, President Eisenhower established NASA to compete head to head with our Cold War adversary. Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin made man’s first flight into space on April 12th, 1961, Kennedy spoke his stirring words a few weeks after Gagarin’s flight, and the second stage of the Space Race was on – the race to the Moon! NASA responded immediately with the Apollo program, dedicated to putting men on the Moon before the decade was out. Apollo’s brightest moment occurred on July 20th, 1969, fifty years ago today.

Mars or Bust

In an address to Congress on May 25th, 1961, President John F Kennedy spoke these words: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.”  He meant it, we did it, and his words still resonate today.

On July 4th, 2019, President Donald J Trump asserted: “Someday soon, we will plant the American flag on Mars.  It’s happening.”  Whether anyone will remember his words fifty years from now, we cannot know.  But let’s assume he meant what he said, even if “someday soon” is not as definite a commitment as “in this decade.”  Let’s assume we intend to step foot on Mars someday.

Rent Control

I have a friend and co-author and editor of many of this blog's pieces who wrote the following.  It was written to be spoken at a City Council meeting.  I believe it speaks for itself.

Zenger/Trump

The proper title of this blogpost should be “A Brief History of Libel Laws in America – Zenger to Trump.”

In 1734, a 1st generation American and New York printer/journalist named John Peter Zenger was accused by the Crown of libel against New York’s royal governor. His lawyer, Andrew Hamilton (no relative of Alexander), argued that while Zenger had indeed criticized the governor – had indeed committed libel as it was defined back then – what he had written in his newspaper was the truth (truth was not a defense against libel in those days). Despite the law, despite the judge’s attempts to thwart the defense, the jury found Zenger not guilty and Americans began the slow march toward freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

Roe v. Wade

Debate Moderator (DM): So, you are a Pro-Life Republican? 

Republican Candidate (RC): Yes, of course. 

DM: Do you support a jail sentence or the death penalty for a woman who has an abortion? 

RC: Of course not, that is insane.  Even Sarah Palin says as much in a much-viewed interview with Katie Couric on YouTube.

DM: Then you support the Roe v. Wade decision? 

RC: No, all Pro-Life people want to repeal Roe v. Wade. 

DM: But Roe v. Wade is the only protection from prison that a woman who wants an abortion has.  Repeal Roe and the woman will be at the mercy of her state.  Nationwide 71%-23% SUPPORT Roe v Wade, and even 52%-39% of Republicans support it.  Your states’ legislatures are not in touch with their own people.  You call yourself Pro-Life, but you believe what Pro-Choice folks believe.

Patriotism, Again

“Words are not enough, Joe, remembering to say "I love you" every ten days doesn’t cut it. If you really loved me, you would take out the trash without my pestering you, you’d clean up after dinner, you’d help me make the beds, you’d mow the lawns and occasionally do the shopping for our dinner table. You would DO things that showed you love me, that made my life more pleasant, easier. And you would buy me flowers for no reason at all other than you were thinking about me and how much I mean to you.” You know the drill, men, words are not enough, real love is demonstrated with actions.

What do I Stand for?

Many of my readers may think that I am a closet Democrat.  They would be wrong, as for decades national Democrats have been nearly as corrupt as national Republicans.  A pox on both their houses!  Well, then, a closet liberal.  Closer, as many of my political positions are liberal ones.  Nevertheless, I have worn the conservative badge in my life; but we have needed progress more than tradition these last 40 or more years, especially as regards to equal rights for previously marginalized members of our greater society.  But I am not a liberal by today’s standards, or yesterday’s, close as I may be.  I have held, and still do, positions that would shock most Americans, positions that are not liberal or conservative.  For example, I want EVERY wage earner paying some federal income taxes; I do not like the idea of exempting so much income (via the Trump tax cut) that low wage earners pay nothing into the system, they become what may have lost Mitt Romney the presidency in 2012, "dependent" "victims."  If given the choice of who or what to kill – an eagle, falcon, tiger, lion, etc., or a human who is about to shoot one of these endangered creatures – without hesitation, I say kill the human (and I don’t care what the extenuating circumstances are, I have no sympathy whatever for savage humans who kill members of an endangered species for sport or kicks [hunters don't kill endangered species]).  And I care more about people in need than anyone who is financially healthy.  These are not personal preferences, these are political choices (I may have a wealthy friend who I like more than a homeless man, but I want government helping out the homeless dude, before my buddy).

The Electoral College

Repealing the Electoral College is an idea whose time has come! Not!

If you have paid any attention to this question – should we repeal the Electoral College? – you will have noticed that the call for repeal only happens sporadically, specifically after a presidential election elevates the candidate with an Electoral College majority but not a popular vote majority (or even plurality). Then, after only a few months, all the energy for repeal dies, waiting for the next time that electoral votes and popular votes divide us once again.

Postpartum Depression

This blog post is not about how the health care industry discriminates against women. Nor does this post demonstrate conclusively that Ben Paine is a closet sexist (pshew!). And it is barely about the new miracle drug for postpartum depression. Rather, this post is a commentary on Ben’s Care, that the single reason for the high cost of health care in the United States is private health care insurance. Hearing about this new drug on the radio inspired this post.

What is a Right, anyway?

I recently found this gem on my Facebook Timeline, posted there by a “friend” of mine.  It is called A Bill of Non Rights.  The author (Lewis Napper, a computer software engineer from Mississippi who ran for a U.S. Senate seat in 2000) was tired of hearing that every damn thing is a RIGHT (he was a Libertarian, of course), and he made the point (back in 1993) that all sorts of things (food, housing, health care, a job, happiness, etc.) are not “rights,” a point with which I substantially agree.  You may have already seen it on your Facebook Timeline.  But you should read it before continuing to read this post.

Flat Tax, Fair Tax

The “Flat Tax” is a variant of an Income Tax that taxes every dollar of income at the same rate. For example, after determining your taxable income, that amount would be taxed at, say, 25%. Rich or poor, every dollar of taxable income is taxed the same. In some cases (I have never seen an exception), the Flat Tax begins with an exemption of the first $20,000 or $30,000, to soften the blow on low wage earners.

The “Fair Tax” is another variant of an Income Tax that is really a fixed-rate Sales Tax or Consumption Tax. For example, you do some shopping at your local Big Box store and end up with a big wagon of stuff; in addition to local and state sales taxes on individual items, there would be a fixed rate federal Sales Tax on the total checkout that would be the same in every locality in the nation, and this would replace the old Income Tax. And like the Flat Tax, the Fair Tax begins with what they call a “prebate,” a monthly check, to soften the blow on low-wage earners (and everyone else).

Term Limits

Often when I impose my favorite topic (“we are NOT a democracy and what are we going to do about it?”) on other people, someone suggests Term Limits as his solution. “Term Limits will keep our elected officials from spending half their time dialing for dollars, especially with the donor class; it will keep lobbyists off their backs.” When I ask, “limited to how many terms?,” they invariably say two, "as they will need some time to learn their new jobs.” When I object that they will be dialing for dollars through that first term, the discussion ends of its own weight as this solution is not a perfect fix of the problem. And arguing over a detail is never much fun.

A Wealth Tax

I have been thinking about a Wealth Tax for a few years now.  Indeed, I think about it so often that I imagined that I had already written a blog post about it.  I checked and I had not!  So, here it is. 

I got kicked in the head when I learned, just a few months ago, that Senator (and recently declared candidate for President from the Democratic Party) Elizabeth Warren was proposing a wealth tax.  All of a sudden, my idea was not original, Warren had beat me to the punch.  Not so!  Her idea was a surcharge on the wealthiest men in the land, while my Wealth Tax replaces the federal Income Tax and the federal Capital Gains Tax altogether.  No more taxation of incomes and no more tax on capital gains!  Got that?

The Tail that Wags the Tail …

Not ready for prime time, come back later!

When the tail wags the dog, the dog is in ... trouble. When a small and relatively insignificant part (the tail) of the whole (the dog) is so powerful that the whole does what the part dictates, something is wrong. Cancer works this way; a few cells begin to multiply out of control and the body begins its march toward inevitable death. But when the tail wags the tail that wags the dog, it is as though a flea in the tail is wagging the tail that wags the dog; here, things are really not the way they should be. The Dog in our parable is the Economy, the national economy or the world economy. The Tail is Finance, or the Financial System. The financial system is those “industries” whose sole “product” is money. Banking, insurance, brokerage and – lest we forget – gambling. All other industries deal in real products and services, things we can actually touch and see and feel; only Finance has no real product and no service that is not an instance of Paul trading money with Peter. Banking pays you interest for your deposits, and gives you loans and mortgages for your promise of future payments of returned principal and the interest thereon. Insurance isolates you from low-risk but high cost phenomena in your lives, like your home burning down or your needing major heart surgery. Brokerage lets you invest in some piece of the overall economy, taking a small risk to get better returns on your capital than would otherwise be available with a savings account from your local "commercial" bank. And gambling, an industry of negative social utility that seduces you into the belief that you can get rich with no real effort and then swallows all your money, but not before assuring you that you will do better next time, guaranteed! This is Finance.

The Ghost of Reagan Past

That icon of mid-20th century American Conservatism, the 40th president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, is famous for saying, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem” and “The most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the government and I'm here to help.”   These are very clever words and they have resonated with millions of Americans, from then until now.

But they do not resonate with me, they are far too cynical for my taste.

A Black and White Fantasy

A medium-large plantation somewhere in South Carolina, 1850 

Sorry, I couldn't find an image of a white master speaking to his black chattel

“Colonel” Phineas Beauregard: Listen up, you darkies. You men and women are my slaves, I own you. But one hour after I have my say and you have all your questions answered, you will all be FREE men and women, free to leave or free to stay, but free! And I will give you all papers stating that once you were my slave but now you are free.

But consider, what may happen should you decide to leave. My neighbors are not as liberal-minded as I am, they may not take to you walking another inch Northward, free men or slave, you will likely as not be hung from a juniper tree until you are dead, or you will be captured as slaves for some other master’s use. Just consider that.