Monthly Archives: April 2016

Things the government does great

Rest stopsI refer to myself as a Liberal Libertarian even though I know that it often gives people the wrong impression (or, maybe although I hope not, because it gives people the wrong impression). The operative word is Liberal, mostly because Libertarian has been roont by the Conservatives. Yes, I think we have way too many laws, some that are put there by well-meaning people and many more that  are put there, not for the general good, but to protect special interests, still, government does lots of great things and almost all of these great things wouldn’t be without government.

Because I am Bernie guy, I write about stuff that doesn’t work vs. stuff that does work in a different relationship than I actually feel. Most stuff does work so, instead of only writing about problems, I want to write about stuff that does work.

Over the last couple of years, California has replaced or rebuilt all of the roadside rest areas and they are terrific. I think that there are a couple on I5 that are the same but most rest area are one of a kind and site specific. The one above is on Highway 46, about half way between 101 and I5. It is knockout. Rest stops-3 Rest stops-4

Deconstructing a joke

JokeWill Taylor posted this a couple of days ago with a comment that said A little simplistic, but pretty much spot on!! Both Michele and I laughed out loud when we first saw it. But we both had some improvements. Who should I vote for bothered me, shouldn’t it be whom because it is the object of for? We tried Whom should I vote for and that didn’t sound right, then For whom should I vote? and we knew we were going in the wrong direction. We ended up both agreeing that the top line should remain unchanged.

Michele wanted to change Are women people? to something dealing with abortion but we both agreed Are women people? covers that and is funnier, so it stayed. And so it went, every line we thought about changing didn’t work as well as the original. In the end, we decided that the joke was best just as it is; no question mark in the title question, Kasich’s name running off the page, the whole thing shot at a slight angle with the binding showing, it is all perfect.

(BTW, the picture has my © on it because I ran it through my Lightroom, but, although I wish it were, this is not my chart.)

 

The trouble with Trump

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 We shouldn’t have ever gone into Iraq and we shouldn’t there now. It’s just a mess. We’ve spent hundreds of millions that could have been used on infrastructure and schools. Donald Trump on the Iraq war

I have written alot on defending people who are Trump supporters and, by inference, defending Trump. I don’t have too much of a problem with most of what Trump says he will do when if he is elected President, but I do have a big problem with his character and his judgement. Most of the positions he is criticized for are really no worse than, say, Jeb! and he is way better than Cruz – who now seems to be the Republican Establishment candidate of choice – on almost everything (I know, I know, those are pretty low bars). Yes, he is way, way, overboard on immigration but immigration is a real problem that nobody on the Republican side seems to be willing to address in any meaningful and feasible way and the alleged moderate, John Kasich, is just about as bad telling the Feds he doesn’t want any Syrians in his state.

The problem with Trump isn’t his positions or lack of detailed plans, it is his tolerance, even promotion, of violence as a legitimate response to something he doesn’t like. It is his intolerance of dissent. Years ago, I took a backpacking medicine course, and the most important thing I remember was “When something happens, spread calm.” Trump is the opposite, he promotes upset. He promotes thuggery and discord. At his rallies, when trouble arises, he escalates the situation. When a fifteen year girl gets pepper sprayed, or a guy being escorted out of a rally gets coldcocked, he celebrates it. When he doesn’t like what a person does, he belittles them. It is effective as a campaign tactic but I suspect it would be much less effective when trying to build alliances.

Trump is a businessman, how good, I don’t really know although I am pretty sure he is better than average. However, being successful at business does not translate into being successful at governing. Warren Harding and Herbert Hoover were both very successful in business but were unsuccessful as Presidents. Harry Truman, who is on everybody’s short list of successful Presidents, went into politics because he went bankrupt in business. As a businessman, when a deal goes sour or becomes too difficult, Trump could walk away or declare bankruptcy, that is not an option when running the country and certainly promoting violence isn’t.