Musings 2021; building back better?

1/2/2021

Driving back from Morgan Hill yesterday we drove under an overpass on
101 defaced by signs like “Stop The Steal” and “Fraud”. It enraged me
that these demonstrators were casting shade on election workers who
had risked their lives in order to assure a free and fair election.

To unite as a nation we must not let propaganda delude us. That serves
only those who seek power at all costs including the destruction of
our priceless democracy.

I understand that we are all suffering and frustrated, pummeled by an
unceasing pandemic and economic downturn. We must nonetheless maintain
our independence, not by shirking our duties to protect our fellow
citizens by wearing masks and avoiding large gatherings but instead by
respecting the will of the majority, and working to make sure that
their voices are not drowned out by the megaphones of wealth or the evil voices of blind bigotry and hatred of others.

1/3

The evidence is now so clear that Mr. Trump is engaging in election
tampering that Congress has no choice but to impeach and convict him
this time.

Besides removing him from office, the Senate can further bar him from
holding any future office of trust and thereby eliminate his poisonous
persona from ever achieving high office again.

Our democracy needs our urgent support and this is the best way to achieve that end.

1/10 SF Chron

“I had a dream about a burning house” is the opening line of a song by
country music star Cam.

Today all Americans are living in a burning house. The only way to put
out this fire is to have those who started it (soon to be ex-President
Trump and his many enablers in Congress and the far-right media) all
have a “come-to-Jesus” moment and recant their lies about a deep-state
conspiracy and a stolen election that never happened.

If that repentance and recantation is too much for them then their
seats in Congress need to be taken from them and a fairness doctrine
reimposed on the media to counter the lies they promulgate which endanger our democracy in the vain hunt for clicks and cash.

1/16

I am asking myself this: what has made the QAnon bulls*** so sticky?
Why has it been so successful at capturing mindshare and inspiring
such intense loyalty towards a misguided anti-government crusade?

There are multiple answers, including right-wing media echo chambers
and existing antipathy towards Government among segments of the
population. But key to the insidious spread of these myths is the
compelling feeling that it explains the misery many people are
suffering throough these days.

In order for DSA to counter these myths we need to have a story that
explains misery in terms of the basic nature of capitalism. The
shocking increases in medical costs and the lack of universal health
care can be explained not by America’s aversion to socialism but by an
addiction to extracting the maximum amount of capital from sick peple
and adding it to corporations bottom line. Example: Insulin costs $5 a
bottle to produce but corporations are charging $540 per vial to
patients in deperate need of this life-saving drug.

Similar explanations can both enrage people (in a good way) and help
us expose the real villains in the piece, not satanic pedophiles at all but greedy self-serving and destructive capitalist corporations.

1/18
The movie Greyhoound is a deeply accurate portrayal of the courageous
men who crossed the Atlantic in convoys during WWII while facing fiery
death from Nazi U-boats in order to support the British war effort.

It is a tragedy that many of these brave men lost their lives fighting
fascism. But what is an even worse tragedy is that today we have an
America where some would rather live under authoritarian rule, and
destroy our democracy just to satisfy the hunger for power of lying
con men.

I believe that we can restore our place as a champion of democracy but
only if we reject the lies coming from the right-wing propaganda
machine and instead follow those who respect truth, facts, reason and science.

1/23
Peter Coyote wrote an excellent op-ed recently which recounted the sad
history of anti-worker bias by generations of Federal policymakers,
Democratic and Republican over the last sixty years.

He correctly identified the ongoing harsh treatment of the working
class as a threat to American democracy.

Unless the Biden administration takes concrete action to help working
people, and overcomes persistent Republican efforts to sabotage all
progress in the name of regaining Republican power, then all that was
won in the recent election will be lost to a regressive 2022
Republican-majority Congress and then in 2024 to the return of a
faux-populist Trump-like figure who may indeed finish off our
democracy

Democrats must prevent the frustration of their critical goals by
eliminating the filibuster or Republicans will continue to endanger our nation in their blind pursuit of power.

1/25 SJ Merc
Disgraced ex-president Trump was rightly excoriated for his
transactional focus. Transactional in that he would only do things for
those he believed had or could do something for him.

Sadly that is now the nature of the entire political system in our
country.

Rather than focusing on maximizing the common good through laws
benefiting all, our legislators focus their efforts on passing laws to
benefit the wealthy donors who supply the massive amounts of campaign
cash needed to keep those same legislators in their cushy offices.

The only way to fix this is via public financing of campaigns. That
will restore the focus of legislators on satisfying the needs of
actual voters rather than wealthy corporations and arrogant billionaires.

1/27 SF Chron published 1/31
In ancient times would-be rulers gathered armies around them and those
armies fought to the death for their leader. The victors would then
rule their tribe/nation until a bigger badder ruler killed and replaced
them.

In this country we chose a different path; let the people themselves
decide who would rule them.

Unfortunately the most recent (and disgraced) ex-president decided to
take a leaf from those ancient practices by directing his “army” of
loyal followers to take violent action against the place and people
who were certifying the people’s will.

Unless we want to go back to those dark ages of violent overthrow the
Senate must try and then convict our faithless former leader for
departing from the path our nation must follow to remain a government of the people.

1/30 SJ Merc
Republicans are masters of deception and deceit.

Their MO is to enrich Corporations and billionaires with tax
breaks and subsidies while destroying any countervailing powers like
unions that might actually help workers get an even break.

The desperation of the workers is then exploited by the Republicans,
using lies to blame Democrats, immigrants and minorities for the sorry
state of the vast majority of the population. These lies mask the true
reasons for the economic precarity of the workers; the conscious
destruction by Republicans of worker’s abilities to organize to
protect their own interests.

Until workers can recognize their real class enemies, the nation will
continue to spiral downward into a third-world oligarchy enabled by a power-crazed GOP.

1/31 SJ Merc
We recently heard the cry “MAGA”, make America great again. But what
was the main reason for our past greatness? Two things; a strong labor
movement that ensured economic gains were actually distributed to
working people and second a government (funded by progressive taxes)
that had the will to assist poor and rural folks with a strong social
safety net and laws requiring utilities and corporations to serve the
interests of the people, not just the wealthy.

Federal programs like FDR’s rural electrification act (REA) gave
farmers entree to the labor-saving devices of the twentieth century,
despite utilities resisting based on pure profit projections.

That is what really made America great, not just relying on “free” markets or demonizing powerless minorities.

2/13 SJ Merc

While much of the blame for the January 6th insurrection is rightfully
placed on our disgraced ex-president, a large portion must also be
reserved for the right-wing media echo chamber that promoted his lies
for months on multiple outlets like Fox and NewsMax, thereby
effectively brainwashing millions of people using propaganda worthy of
a Goebbels or a Lord Haw-Haw (Google it).

We need to renew the Fairness Doctrine to dilute the toxic vitriol
being poured into the nation’s political bloodstream.

Otherwise (especially if/when our Ex-Pres. is acquitted) this may all
happen again, and worse, it may succeed in destroying our precious democracy for good.

3/27

Thomas Friedman in his op-ed of March 27 rightly notes that China can
still do big things while the U.S. “not so much”.

He further notes that gerrymandered seats leave politicians
comfortable doing pure performative theatrics rather than anything of
real value to the bulk of their constituents.

What he leaves off the table is that politicians actually do real work
for one class of “people”; their wealthy donors and corporations. When
Amazon makes tens of billions in profits but pays zero income tax that
is the work of the solicitous politicians on the Amazon donor gravy
train. When the $15 minimum wage is dropped from the 1.9 trillion
dollar relief package that too represents the will of the donor class.

The only way that can change is if we outlaw massive political donations and go all-in on public funding of campaigns.

3/27 Sacramento bee

The wonderful salmon runs of yesteryear are at their lowest ebb due to
drought and excessive consumption of Delta water by greedy farmers who
receive their water at a fraction of its value due to overly generous
government subsidies.

Since 80% of California’s water is consumed by agriculture, that is
the logical place to staunch the bleeding we experience during our
frequent dry spells.

A couple of suggestions:

First, cap overall ag water usage at the average ag consumption over
the last ten years (to include wet and dry periods).

Second, identify how much water could be saved if farmers used the
latest water-saving technologies.

Third, reduce the water allocation cap annually over the next ten
years to that calculated “best practices” level.

Farmers would then have to either install better irrigation/drip
systems or drop their least profitable crops to stay under the

Voila; problem solved.

4/3 SJ Merc

The 3 April SJ Mercury op-ed article on the vicious domestic battle
between autocracy and democracy highlighted the threats to our
precious democracy in the face of concentrated and growing attacks
from the right.

The key reason that autocracy has a chance at success is the gridlock
that has gripped our government due to scorched-earth Senate
Republicans.

They refuse to grant any legitimacy to the Democratic majority and
instead plan to use every (undemocratic) maneuver to thwart Democratic
initiatives.

Meanwhile, working people are suffering and need solutions: economic,
social, and medical.

That is why the Democrats in the U.S. Senate must neuter the
filibuster (and any other obstructionist Senate rules), that impede
new infrastructure, environmental and voter-rights solutions,
solutions that are key to preserving our democracy and to actually
improving the lives of millions of Americans, and not just the
Uber-Rich.