The less you know

A clean slate is one way to translate the Latin tabula rasa.

Outlandish choices are one way to lead or govern, I guess. The 118th Congress, newly seated, is already off to a bizarre start.

Both MTG and George Santos have landed House committee seats. Consider the irony of the fake businessman legislating about small business. Save some outrage for Taylor Greene, denying the event which percipatated the formation of her committee

George Santos cannot be treated as the tabula rasa that MTG claims to be. He’s far too creative a liar.

She has said she was naive when she quoted “Q” on conspiracy theories. I wonder who told her about Jewish space lasers. Reformation is a very appealing position to take. MTG’s comes without apology.

Santos also isn’t big on apology. He stands pat on his ill-gotten electoral victory.

Their party’s failure to call either to account is in tribute to the man who has been leading them astray since at least 2012.

Both Santos and MTG have an aberrant approach to political life which they have learned from TFG.

The behavior Santos and MTG exhibit is straight out of the lie-and-deflect playbook.

What do we do with..

Republicans have a lot to contend with in this 118th Congressional Session.

Despite the Speaker’s contention that they learned how to govern during their humiliating week of dysfunction, you know it isn’t so. The disarray will haunt the Speaker’s balcony for the term.

As if this weren’t enough, they have in their midst a fabricator who makes TFG look like a boy scout.

What do we do with a problem like George? [Forgive me Mr. Bernstein.]

In the way he inserts himself in major events, Santos brings to mind the titular Woody Allen character Zelig.

Professional politics

There were precedents over the centuries of American political life.

We as a people don’t readily submit to being governed.

For several political cycles, we’ve been drawn to the idea that in politics being a professional is somehow wrong. We want our politicians to be “outside politics.”

This is a puzzling requirement for a profession that has such a strong effect on our lives.

Do we require our lawyers to hold amateur status? How about your heart specialist? Should his credentials be that he isn’t part of the medical establishment?

Our infrastructure needs bolstering. Our security requires a sensible and understanding approach. Our economy needs to be supported.

Politicians are hired by us (aka “we the people”) to steer our country. This is wonky work, requiring knowledge and expertise in every issue of daily life.

Clowning and posturing (I am looking at you Boebert and Gaetz and Taylor-Green, but not only at you) won’t cut the mustard.

The boys and girls in government are charged with looking at the problem and being part of the solution.

Balking at the infantilization of our governing body? Yes, me too. The House Republicans need to grow up if they are to meet the needs of America.

Thoughts

Did you ever imagine that we’d be saying that the trouble with the American economy was strong growth and high wages?

Perspectives change and the rules we grew to think were steadfast don’t always hold the line. Economics is an evolving science.

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Yesterday’s conclusions from the J6 committee were welcome news. They worked hard to create a historic record of that dark day.

The conspirators deserve to be held to account. From top down.

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The Former Guy is making threats of another coup in response to the revelations made by J6 Cmte.

The question for America’s next chapter is how well the republic will recover from what TFG has wrought.

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BTW prices at the gas pump are down.

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President Zelensky is heading to America’s capital. This is bravery!

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When your resume is the best fiction you have ever written! No make that the best fiction you will ever write.

Don’t let anyone dismantle what we built

Democracy did not die on Tuesday, November 8, 2022. We dodged a bullet.

TFG would like to tear it down, replace it with something that will bear his Name Writ Large. Don’t let that happen. Don’t let him hijack American democracy for his own ends.

Democracy, as it is practiced here in America, could use a tweak or two. Let’s fix it. It can use a refresh.

It can be amended.

Don’t let anyone take the power from the people and place it in his dangerous little hands.

Do not let anyone dismantle America.

TFG

There is a real danger in giving this maniacal insurrectionist a forum and a platform.

An NYT writer feels that Biden didn’t make the ex-prez “small” enough by declaring against the threat to democracy he poses.

I contend that the press and the people did not take him seriously enough the first time around. We of the liberal persuasion laughed at his antics. Ha, who’s laughing now!

America’s origin story

Those of us appalled by those of you taking aim at the Constitution still have hope for American democracy.

Not my art but ain’t it cute?

Those of you fighting to dismantle civil rights, health and welfare have abandoned any faith in its precepts.

Assuming of course you ever cared about the founding principles of the United States of America.

And yes, the Constitution is a flexible document that should keep up with the times. Society can dictate its amendments to the “rules” of the original. It shouldn’t hold back civic progress in the interest of being true to its every nuance.

The Constution, like the Government, is of the people/by the people/for the people. You are not.

When you’re not looking

Yup. That’s when things you wish didn’t happen happen. So there are Supreme Court justices who were laying the ground work to dismantle Constitutional rights for a long time.

This sort of exercise of jurisprudence against the people is usually the work of tyrants and their sycophants. (See Laphmans Back Matter as a commentary on this.)

When something has been codified as law for half a century, it must be deemed a precedent. Precedents are sacred to American law and each of the SC justices who now discarded them vowed to uphold precedent while being reviewed for their position on the Court.

Lying under oath is not a qualification for serving our American citizenry. It does seem to be a symptom of the last several political cycles dominated by TFG whose propensity towards untruth has brought dire results to our Great country.

Jan 6th is one outcome when Big Lies are perpetrated. A Supreme Court packed with partisan players is another.

These men and women who now wear the robes of our highest court warned us of their intent. They signaled very clearly that they had a regressive definition of our democracy.

We just weren’t paying attention.

Preserving what is Great about America requires we stay vigilant.

Have a happy 4th of July.

Politics and policy

Wander with me but keep your eye on democracy, a prize worth keeping.

This is a meandering  post but it is heading towards the common good.

The insurrectionist party formerly known as the GOP has taken the banner of a failed man to try to wrestle democracy to the ground. I was going to call it the Tr***ican Party but his head is already very big [and full of rocks from the looks of it.]

This failed man was once a powerful elected official although even that election he won was questionable as were his ethics and business dealings.

In the typical action of a born autocratic, he challenged the results of his next assay into high office; he was not reelected contrary to what his publicists and the January 6th traitors have said.

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Vaccines help make us all safe from the extensive spread of Covid-19.

The virus will freely mutate and infect the increasing numbers of us as long as there is a host receptive to it.

The mutations have a biological imperative to survive and multiply. The unvaccinated are their entrée into the general population and their key to this survival.

If we don’t fight it, the virus will dominate. And win!

Terrorism, Domestic

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Denying the results of a nationwide election has become the hallmark of conspiracy theorists and conspirators. These deniers threaten our democracy.

Let’s stay on our toes. We need to be vigilant as there are vigilantes determined to undermine the fabric of American democracy.

Our country was made, like the patchwork quilts so popular on its frontier, of bits and pieces. Diversity is not a 21st century idea. It is the basis on which the USofA is founded.

Do not let it founder under the threat of lawless mobs.