A Way Of Looking At Things
December 1, 2020
So the Donald’s myth-making goes like this:
Lawyers: “Your Honor, our client lost the election because of fraud.”
Judge: “What is your evidence?”
Lawyers: “He lost the election.”
Common denominator: their client lost the election.
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
November 20, 2020
Yesterday, Joe Biden called Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the election result “outrageous.” But there is a more precise term for calls to overturn a duly elected government.
Sedition is a crime. The President Elect should let it be known that, if this does not stop immediately, he may consider charges based on it afterJanuary 20, 2021. This would apply to the current occupant of the Oval Office and co-conspirators in Congress who support his inane and insane, desperate and demented, but much more importantly, illegal, efforts to overturn the election.
In 2000, a Democrat won by half a million votes and the Supreme Court handed the election to a Republican.
In 2016, a Democrat won by three million votes and the Electoral College handed the election to a Republican.
In 2020, a Democrat won by six million votes, taking the Electoral College by a wide margin in the process. The loser now calls Republican state legislators to Washington in an attempt to subvert the clear will of the people that he leave office. It is becoming obvious that he is terrified to do so. Why, only time will tell.
No more nonsense.
It stops now, or…..lock them up !
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
November 13, 2020
Now that he is The Biggest Loser for all to see, that is.
Well, he won’t do the one thing he can’t do, which is admit he lost. Just can’t say the words.
But we know he’s a nasty piece of work when he gets loose in the backfield.
I don’t mean anything good by that – as if anyone would really want such a tiny, mentally and emotionally damaged little man on their team.
No, he’ll tackle his own blockers. Run the wrong way. Insult, kick and punch the referees.
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
October 19, 2020
Get ready for the headline, November 4th:
YOU’RE FIRED ! UNLIKE OBAMA, TRUMP FAILS TO WIN SECOND TERM
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
August 16 2020
This morning’s conversation solves major World Problems. First we solve the problem of war. Thankfully, nuclear weapons make this easy. All we need is a simple international fly-off to determine the most competent strategic systems – missiles, bombs, planes, subs, etc. Then the Americans, Russians, English, French, Chinese, Indians and so forth agree to possess only these systems. Known products with known capabilities in known quantities. No need for anyone to ever think they can get the drop on anybody else. It becomes evident that large massed assaults against bona fide states, ala the 1940’s, are as strategically ridiculous as they have been known to be since the early fifties. This is simply DeGaulle’s force de frappe on an international scale. Smaller national sovereignties might be guaranteed by lending of intermediate range systems to smaller states worried about such things. Arming codes could be supplied and renewed on an as-needed basis tied to good and neighborly behavior and political rhetoric for specified periods of time. Nukes aren’t going away, so we need to get them to work for us. There is a certain beauty in the way they make old-style war impossible.
There, no more war. Except that we have created a new problem – the big corporate interests that make money on war won’t like the idea. Nor will the young men who seek danger and death in glory.
So we need something equally large, expensive , gear-intensive, and as dangerous as war to throw to these companies as a replacement bone. No need to look far. Thank heavens for space exploration. It checks all those boxes. So does public health. The real enemies are microbes and only big (read expensive) science, research and technology can combat them. Ditto for climate change and new energy sources. Gee, replacing the military-industrial complex ought to be easy. There are lots of expensive pursuits which don’t involve sending lead hurtling through human bodies.
Now we need to solve America’s problems so that it can return to world leadership, such as it ever was. This is also simple, because the Constitution is the problem and it’s a short simple document.
We need a Constitutional Convention. This was expected by the Founders to be routine – so much so that they made two ways to call one. So what would be the most effective amendments? Here’s my list. Add yours.
Number 1: Term Limits for Senators and Representatives. Return elective government service to a duty and remove it as a career.
Number 2: Reproductive Rights (abortion). Let’s vote this up or down once and for all and stop it from polluting our politics and court system.
Number 3: The Electoral College. Just end it. One person; one vote. Plain and simple.
Number 4: Qualifications of the President. Thirty-five and born in the USA just doesn’t cut it anymore. You need more to fill out an employment application at McDonald’s. For a president, at minimum: full financial disclosure including tax returns; passing a standard civil service test; prior government service at the federal, state or local level; a demonstated familiarity with the Constitution, citing from memory its structure and the general content of its articles and amendments, by number; a mental health evaluation …
There you have it.
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
July 22, 2020
Thomas Edsall’s column in the Times today started out as follows:
“In the continuing debate over whether liberals or conservatives are more open minded, whether those on the left or the right are more rigid in their thinking, a team of four Canadian psychologists studied patterns of “cognitive reflection” among Americans.
They found that a willingness to change one’s convictions in the face of new evidence
was robustly associated with political liberalism, the rejection of traditional moral values, the acceptance of science, and skepticism about religious, paranormal, and conspiratorial claims.
Those who ranked high on a scale designed to measure the level of a respondent’s “actively open-minded thinking about evidence” were linked with the acceptance of “anthropogenic global warming and support for free speech on college campuses.”
Conversely, the authors — Gordon Pennycook of the University of Regina, and James Allan Cheyne, Derek J. Koehler and Jonathan A. Fugelsang of the University of Waterloo — found that an aversion to altering one’s belief on the basis of evidence was more common among conservatives and that this correlated “with beliefs about topics ranging from extrasensory perception, to respect for tradition, to abortion, to God.”
My reaction:
Is this something new? On the following pages I’ve reproduced some (pretty old now) definitions of Liberal and Conservative.
Liberal has always meant generous of spirit and open-minded. Basically, intelligent.
Conservative has always meant crabbed, closed-minded, averse to change. Basically, stupid.
You can go through almost any modern commentary and substitute “intelligent people” for “liberals” and “stupid people” for “conservatives” and all will make newfound sense.
For your reading pleasure, I’ve also included two bonus definitions.
The first is Tory – since that’s what most New World Conservatives really are – people who don’t really subscribe to the American notion that the accident of our birth, no matter how lofty, cannot be made into a personal accomplishment.
The second is Tax and Spend Liberal. I had to make this one up, although you hear it bandied about by stupid people.
MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
July 22, 2020
Here’s a definition of Tax and Spend Liberal
Tax-and-Spend-Liberal-Defined-1MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
July 22, 2020
Here’s a definition of Tory:
Tory-Defined-1MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
July 22, 2020
Here’s a definition of Conservative:
Conservative-Defined-3MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity
July 22, 2020
Here’s a definition of Liberal.
Liberal-Defined-1MOE
M.I.C.H. – Modernity, Intelligence, Complexity, Humanity