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Category Archives: Politics
The undecided voter
When the mainstream media pulls together a select panel of undecided voters, I know without a doubt that I’m looking at the dumbest voting block in the country.
I wouldn’t say this of a hardcore Trump supporter, … necessarily.
At least with a full fledged Trump supporter you know what you’re getting. They have been paying attention and have made a choice. A horrible choice, but at least they are cognizant of the world around them and let us know where they stand.
The undecided voter gets no such benefit. If you haven’t figured out where you stand between the choice of Hillary or Trump, then I’m sorry but you are a dumb ass.
It’s like standing there in front of the TV and with a straight face saying gosh, I need to find a job but I can’t decide if I should pursue coal mining or go into medicine.
Republican hypocrisy off the charts
I’m old enough to remember when Republicans were aghast when Bill Clinton met with Loretta Lynch on the tarmac in Phoenix, Az. and chatted for 20 minutes. And rightfully so, Hillary was under investigation for the now-infamous nothing-burger e-mail scandal. Given the situation, it was terrible judgement to meet with the active AG when your wife is under investigation.
Now we have William Barr who, if he’s not sleeping at the White House appears to be a de-facto member of the Trump cabinet. To quote Lev Parnas, “He was on the team” when it came to drumming up opposition research on Joe Biden. Of course, the Republicans are fine with this instance of abuse of power because well, hypocrisy.
Facebook boycott
One reason to boycott Facebook is because Zuckerberg is a selfish idiot. Just sayin’
War: Mandatory Draft and Pay-go
Conservatives tend to rally around war mongering without requiring the slightest bit of justification. There were no WMDs after all in Iraq. Qasam Soleimani was assassinated because as rumor has it, he was planning to plot against us. No evidence of these assumptions ever seems to be required. Cost, both human and financial, be damned.
When the Iraq war was waged by George W. Bush in 2003, cable viewers could watch bombs explode on targets on CNN every day. I think most people thought it was a really cool display of our technology. Entertainment even. Lets gather around and watch some more brown people die. It’s 6,000 miles away and looks like a well designed video game on TV.
This is where the problem lies now. It’s easy to be entertained by war when it’s other people’s children doing the dying. It’s also easy to be entertained by war when it seemingly doesn’t cost us anything. Free entertainment. And we alway seem to win. What a cool country we live in.
To the average American, a real test of whether or not it’s cool would be if everyone had an equal chance of participating in the war games. Hmm, hold on a minute. I just like to watch. That’s what I thought.
This is why I’m thinking the only solution that will force people to get real about whether or not they really support a movement towards war, is if we reverted back to the mandator draft. I believe it would nip this kind of thinking in the bud. Oh it’s my kid who might have to be on the front line? Wait just a minute now.
Another test would be if we had to use pay-go for the war costs. If everyone’s tax bill went up $5,000 / year to pay for the ongoing war, can you imagine the push-back? Well, I think we should do it but I’m not going to be the one paying for it. Indeed. You don’t have to worry about that because it’s on the credit card. You’ll be dead when the bill comes due, but your kids won’t be too happy.
Lloyd Bentsen, in the 1988 Vice Presidential debate said it best.
You know, if you let me write $200 billion worth of hot checks every year, I could give you an illusion of prosperity, too.
Some thoughts on homelessness
I was struck by a thread of conversation nextdoor.com titled “Homeless people in LO.” The author had really good intentions and was asking for compassion and understanding towards the homeless. Reading the author’s bio I wasn’t sure if the post was a troll or not. After-all, wouldn’t it be somewhat predictable to expect the people of this relatively affluent burb to vigorously attack behaviors that might attract more homeless people to the confines of Lake Oswego? What better way to get under their skin than to start a thread on how we can engage in behaviors that would result in more homeless people in the city with its own private lake.
As I read through the comment section I was very pleased to learn that Lake Oswego residents have opinions on both sides of this issue. It wouldn’t be fair to stereotype an entire community as stodgy old rich people who don’t give a hoot about the poor. There were some heartless souls chiming in, but just as many people who understood this is a complex issue, thankfully.
Several root causes were asserted in this thread. Mental illness, drug addiction, the cost of housing, lack of morals. All factors to be sure. That’s why it’s a complex issue that can’t be solved by simply saying “Don’t tread on me, move your tent to someone else’s burb!”
I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that the homelessness issue is getting worse. As of 2017 about 2% of Portland’s population was homeless, or about 38,000 people. It’s real and all it takes is a check on our senses of sight and smell to understand we need to collectively do something. We aren’t going to wish this problem away.
Everyone wants clean cities that they can be proud of that they can show off to out-of -towners. I read an article not long ago of a guy who had fond memories of riding the Springwater trail during his time in Portland, but then got married and moved to Bend. When his kids got to be bike riding age he tried to take the family back to Portland to experience the Springwater trail for themselves and it was quite simply, not a place you would ever want to take your family.
I don’t claim to be a subject matter expert on homelessness, but I’ll share my take on it because I think it’s a perspective worth considering.
My main point is, the problem isn’t going to be resolved for free. I don’t have the statistics in front of me but I have a sister who worked as a mental health nursing supervisor and I recall her telling me back in the 1980’s about how the drastic funding cuts to mental healthcare were going to result in what we are seeing today. Often times there simply isn’t any place for the mentally ill to go.
Everyone wants lower taxes including me. I sometimes wonder what they do with all that money they collect every year off my property taxes. How the government spends the money they collect is a valid issue, but in my opinion should be treated separately from addressing the crisis of homelessness now.
The problem is we want it both ways. We want beautiful, clean cities we can be proud of but we don’t want to provide funds to adequately take care of the mentally ill among us. In retrospect it was very naive to think that we’d be able to cut those funds with no consequences.
The second point I want to make is, this is a problem that belongs in the hands of professionals. It’s incredibly naive to think the Portland police or you and I can do anything about this issue. I remember standing at a bus stop on Naito a couple of years ago and witnessed first hand a mentally ill person yielding a sword out in the middle of traffic. I was concerned for his safety so I called the Police. I didn’t have high expectations for what could be done, but my suspicions were confirmed when the officer told me “We get 20 calls like this a day. We can’t commit to coming out to each one, we just don’t have the resources.” They can’t lock them all up unless they are a threat to others. Since the guy was just waving his sword around randomly and not at anyone, they couldn’t come. Okay man, I’ll call ‘ya back when he starts waving it at me.
The good news is this is sort of a self correcting problem. We already have businesses that are choosing not to locate downtown because of the homeless issue. They simply don’t want to subject their workers to the ugliness that comes with having to wade through camps of homeless people to get to the food cart to grab a bite.
When the problem gets bad enough and enough businesses leave the city, tents and blue tarp start showing up in Dunthorpe, all of our house values decline and Portland loses its luster as a destination city… in other words, when it starts to cost real money, something will be done. That’s when the voters will approve a ballot measure that adequately funds the mentally ill.
With the advantages afforded me, I personally was born on at least 2nd base. I try to remember that because I can easily envision scenarios where most of us are all one or two bad breaks away from setting up camp.
Who will play the role of Judas?
Here is where we are right now. A picture is worth 1000 words.
Tax the Megachurches
Paula White and Jerry Falwell Jr. are great examples of why candidate endorsing churches should be taxed. These are mini cults preying on the weak, violating separation of church and state.
I have no issue with issue endorsing, but candidate endorsing crosses the line.
Mayor Pete
It’s probably way too early to be speculating on anything to do with the democratic primaries. At this point all we have is the media’s rankings which is mostly based on fund raising success or lack thereof.
Not long ago I was leaning hard towards Kamala Harris. The original reasons that attracted me to her candidacy still exist. She’s smart. She’s tough. She’s kind and very likable, and perhaps best of all, she’s not at risk of being an octogenarian during her first term. Sure, go ahead and accuse me of agism. See if I care. I really don’t at this point.
As time goes on, the more I see of Mayor Pete, the more I like the idea of his candidacy. Here are my reasons.
- He’s incredibly intelligent and articulate
- He’s a veteran so he comes with creds on foreign policy to some extent. He’s served his country honorably.
- He’s from Indiana, so he cannot be viewed as a “coastal elite” which is the ball and chain that I think Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would have to shake off with the midwest voters.
- On healthcare he’s a realist for the public options vs. medicare for all. There are a lot of people who would be extremely upset if they had to give up their employer paid healthcare.
- He’s young
At this point I can’t get excited about Sanders, Warren, or Biden. I would support them in a heartbeat over any republican of course but Pete Buttigeig would be a complete breath of fresh air into our political system. The voter turnout for young people would be off the charts. After all, it’s going to be their country 20 years from now, no? Someone from their generation should be guiding the direction of it. Especially now with critical climate decisions in the equation.
I only mention this because I like the idea of being an early adopter. It’s kind of like investing. Everyone knows Amazon is a great stock now, but the ones who bought at $50/share are the visionaries.
Count me in the Pete Buttigeig camp fairly early. The chance that he gets the nomination are probably pretty slim, but not if people keep an open mind.
That’s what did the democrats in the last time. Wasserman-Shultz declared Clinton the heir to the thrown before the primaries even got off the ground. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen this time.
Who cares?
Chuck Todd had a political analyst from Iowa on Meet The Press last Sunday. To be sure there were some interesting stats about what the people from the great state of Iowa were concerned about. My question is: Who gives a shit what Iowans think? It’s 6 bloody electoral votes. Iowa isn’t the “pulse” of the American heartland. It’s a small state out in the middle of nowhere with a bunch of farms and a few universities.
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