Libera Voce

“Credit is an ‘I love debt’ score.” Dave Ramsey

Dave Ramsey is a well-known and respected financial adviser who has been ringing the debt crisis bell for a while now as the American credit addiction is headed to a catastrophic phase. Ramsey and others have debunked many of the narratives the government has gaslighted America with, blaming the pandemic, corporate greed, wars, China, climate and whatever they can fill their echo chamber of alibis with, but not accepting their role with lockdowns, irrational spending, monetary manipulation, and overregulation, but at the same time telling us how great the economy is.

The financial news today reported that the US is approaching $35T in its national debt. In order to quantitatively understand that kind of debt in individual terms, divide the debt by the US population; that would mean that every man, woman and child in America has a debt burden of approximately $106,000, and it’s growing fast. Given that the average family in America is 3.14 people, their share of the nation’s debt is currently at $318,000; add to that the average private debt per family of $104,000 and what you have is a country whose average families are $422,000 in debt. These numbers are staggering and clearly unsustainable.

Added to this dilemma is the jaw dropping 2023 statistic that approximately 78% of American households are living paycheck-to-paycheck, and during a time when inflation is running ahead of income growth; this clearly shows why savings is a fantasy for most Americans, and adding to their fear that a catastrophic event could put them below the poverty level, joining 38M Americans already there.

Also in the news were discussions among financial and economic analysts regarding the likelihood of Fed rate cuts; the estimates of how many cuts have dropped with the latest CPI, PPI and jobs reports from as many as seven cuts this year to as little as two, and maybe none, to perhaps even a rate increase. The insight that the number in the March jobs report of 303K additional is mostly comprised of government and part-time work, with a decline in private sector full-time work.

While all of this is ready political fodder during an election year, there is little optimism for those with a memory of the prior administration’s poor record of fiscal and monetary prudence. The same can be said for the various administrations before that. The fact is that this problem was created more than a century ago under the Wilson administration with the creation of the Federal Reserve, the central bank for the US. The Fed is a legalized cartel created under the pretense of the greater good while in reality it is structured to serve the banking system. This façade is crumbling given the history of the Fed in the boom-and-bust cycle, as is the same for all the world’s central banks. As Meyer Rothschild famously once said, “Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws.”

Investment bankers, including the Fed, have the incentive to support deficit spending by underwriting government bonds, a form of credit that creates the debt burden forced on the American people. This creates one cause for inflation, while the other is the fiat currency the Fed directs the UST to print in order to then buy those same bonds to support the fiscal problem of government spending, all without actually spending anything itself. While this in the private sector would be a criminal activity, it is for the Fed legalized fraud.

That the Fed is responsible for inflation in America is empirically evidenced by the simple fact that inflation is the increase in the money supply, and the Fed is the monopolistic entity that creates more money, and it does it with the credit of the US, ultimately a debt owed by the people. This was made even more insidious with the actions of the FDR and Nixon administrations suppressing and then abandoning the gold standard; this decoupling from a sound store of value removes this restriction against inflation.

With this egregious debt we will have less to invest in the future of this country resulting in fewer opportunities for our younger generations. It is also corrosive to the world’s confidence in the US dollar, which puts its status as a reserve currency in jeopardy. It also creates more dependencies on the Federal government, a consequence that many authoritarians like Vladimir Lenin understood when he observantly said, “The establishment of a central bank is ninety percent of communizing a nation.”

This is not a post about the philosophy of existentialism; that would be nearly impossible to even define given so many differences among its proponents, which is odd considering the implications in the base word itself. The commonly accepted dictionary definition, in this case Webster, defines existential as relating to, or affirming existence; this is a much more productive way to discuss the subject, and I am doing so to talk about the US and the State of Israel.

Today Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made headline news for canceling the planned meeting in Washington DC between the Biden administration and his own to talk about the war in Gaza. That the US expressed shock about the cancellation is willful ignorance as Israel previously stated that should the US support the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire pass, it would cancel the meeting; disgracefully, the US showed the ultimate cowardice and betrayal by abstaining, which predictably allowed passage of the resolution.

Foreign aid has usually resulted in more harm than good, another case of wasting the American taxpayer’s money, as if we need more debt than we already have. However, if there ever was a justification for helping a professed ally in need, then we should consider the fact that the US has always maintained Israel, up until now, as top of the list; since 1952, the US and Israel have established multiple mutual defense agreements. 

If you profess to be Israel’s ally, you do not betray them; at the very least, you do not do so in public, which does far more harm than a private rebuke. Add to this insult the previous public statement by Senator Schumer that Israel should replace its prime minister, as if he’s illegitimately in office and not duly elected, inappropriately advising Israel on its domestic politics as if they were a vassal state; none of these acts are those of an ally, not to mention the arrogance of lecturing Israel how to conduct a war when in fact the US has shown little ability in successfully conducting any in the last seventy years.

Compare how the current US administration is treating a long-standing ally to its support for Ukraine, a country with which we have no treaty, not even an indirect relationship via the EU or NATO. Further, the Ukrainian regime is controlled by Neo-Nazi oligarchs who put a puppet in charge that we virtually canonize as a hero for democracy! Where are the calls in the US or the UN for a ceasefire by Ukraine? The Russo/Ukrainian conflict is a war between two kleptocracies, whereas the Israeli/Hamas conflict represents an existential struggle for an ally’s survival.

Much of the media’s talking heads point out that Biden himself is in an existential political struggle, requiring him to appease a radical faction of his own party in order to win an election; if so, and that is a viable analysis, then it only adds to the shame as electoral politics does not excuse such moral bankruptcy, especially as that is exactly what he accuses his opponent of.  We no longer have a case of just cultural anti-Semitism in America, it is now an expedient political policy.

“The demand to be loved is the greatest of all arrogant presumptions.” Friedrich Nietzsche

The presumptions that politicians are making about who they represent are arrogant, whether it’s Trump or Biden; they seem delusionally certain that whatever they demand means that they are truly loved. There does not appear to be any objective deliberations among them and their advisers of the shifts in the electorate’s perceptions of them, whether it’s their age, or concerns about inflation and immigration.

With Trump, more and more Republicans are weary of his bellicose rhetoric and behavior. While there is not just a perception, but obvious grandiose posturing, partisan prejudice, and incompetence by those bringing indictments against Trump, there is also an evidence trail that alienates many Americans. While he’s the apparent winner in the Republican primary, that’s more a reflection of the lack of serious opposition. Recent polling also shows him marginally ahead of Biden in battle ground states, so this November we’re likely to see a close election.

While Biden continues to speak to the success of “Bidenomics”, the polls show an ever-increasing number of voters rejecting it. The alarm among Democrats is rising as is the number of minority voters leaving long established affiliations. Much of that has to do with the simple reality of minorities being the most affected by high crime, illegal immigration, and inflation. This is particularly evident among Hispanic and Asian minorities, and poor African Americans being the worst hit. Then there is what many Biden fans at the time that Hunter’s laptop story broke, dismissed it as another Russian conspiracy to get Trump elected; now that theory has been debunked and there are congressional hearings about influence pedaling.

The polls show an ever-increasing number of voters identifying as independents as both major parties are losing registered voters. For Republicans, the Trump circus is causing a seismic shift from the unity it once had, and with Democrats we have significant movements for alternatives with the “Common Sense” town halls initiated by Joe Manchin and Jon Huntsman, the “No Labels” party set to announce candidates, and with RFK Jr. committed to a run. Where this will lead now that the primaries are resolved is an open question, but it is increasingly possible that we will have multiple actors on the presidential ballot that could seriously draw votes away from either major party come next November; this is actually a very positive development.

For far too long we have been dominated by the ruinous policies of the arrogant Republican and Democratic duopoly; they always seem to come to terms mutually supporting and perpetuating the warfare state and the welfare state. The economic harm this has caused is apparent with our record debt, and the resulting drop in ratings for US bonds. Back in 1992, then President George H.W. Bush, crusading in the Near East saving the world from Saddam Hussein, ignored the pain felt by his constituents during that recession; Bill Clinton’s election strategist James Carville famously quipped, “It’s the economy, stupid!”. That was an historically based observation as Americans traditionally vote their pocketbook; but will they vote next November for a quick fix or for meaningful change?

I recently read an article that reminded me about the three taxes, i.e. direct, hidden and deferred; what was being referenced respectively were income, property, and sales taxes as direct, inflation as hidden as it’s misunderstood by most people, and deferred as is the case with borrowing such as US bonds. The growing concerns about immigration, inflation and war can all be tied to America’s huge debt with even more deficits adding to it; clearly what is needed is a cure for the addiction to deficit spending. Common sense tells us that the bigger the debt, the more painful the solution; what we need are candidates that will make that the focus of the 2024 election. All the other campaign rhetoric is nothing but noise to distract us from this essential issue.

A phrase often heard on financial news programs lately about consumers is that they have become “inflation weary”; if there is an increase in taxes, or a direct involvement in a war, that weariness could devolve into economic ruin.  We were at similar risks back in 1973 to 1982, during a recessionary period called “Stagflation”; it took that recession, Fed interest rates over 20%, serious spending cuts and a political sea change to get over the problem, and debt was fractional compared to now as the ratio of debt to GDP has never been higher except during war.

While we don’t need the worthless hubris of either Trump or Biden, the question comes down to policies and not personalities, and the realization that one of these two narcissistic grifters will likely be our next president. Hopefully, they will name their primary cabinet posts beforehand so we have an idea of who can be the guardrails when either of them drives the US closer toward a cliff; judging by the past, neither has shown the ability to listen to good counsel or find those that can provide it.

What the movement away from the two-party system by independents, and the rise of third parties provides is an opportunity to not only send a message, but to affect an electoral outcome. The two-party system in the US is fading away, a failed period of cronyism and patronage; it was just another disguise for socialism.  What we need in the 2024 electoral campaign is an honest debate about the republic for which we had better stand or lose.

The original post 0f 06/29/23 is being re-posted for its relevance to recent narratives being pushed by both major political parties. I am taking a quote from one of the last true newsmen of the modern era whose reporting on similar events years ago describes what should be the principle held by all journalists: “As anchorman of the CBS Evening News, I signed off my nightly broadcasts for nearly two decades with a simple statement: ‘And that’s the way it is.’ To me, that encapsulates the newsman’s highest ideal: to report the facts as he sees them, without regard for the consequences or controversy that may ensue.” Walter Cronkite

“In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” George Orwell

Daniel Ellsberg died yesterday, the man who committed one of the great revolutionary acts in American history that did more to expose the deceit of multiple administrations regarding the Viet Nam War with the Pentagon Papers than anyone else. His work was a direct link to what Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein exposed later in the Watergate scandal. These guys were relentless pursuers of the truth regarding very sinister and destructive policies and practices. They all came under intense criticism and criminal charges for their efforts, which in the end did much to preserve the liberties and rule of law enshrined in our constitution.

What their work did is hold the government accountable for its actions by exposing the truth, and in politics, and now journalism, that is a revolutionary act. If someone is working to prevent people from hearing the truth, then that someone is likely not telling the truth. This is what Ellsberg discovered, both as a Marine in Viet Nam, and later a consultant to the government regarding that war. Ultimately Ellsberg was exonerated of all criminal charges basically because the judge found that the government had acted with egregious misconduct.

Unfortunately that is not the case with Julian Assange with Wikileaks on illegal activities in the Pentagon and Edward Snowden on illegal government surveillance. It’s apparent that both of these people are in prison or exile because they exposed the truth, and as Ron Paul so wittingly noted, “Truth is treason in the empire of lies.” Apparently the empire has never changed its evil ways as it continues to strike back against the exposure of the truth. Ellsberg was very vocal about his support for Assange and said “I’ve sort of been waiting for somebody to do this for forty years.” He was equally vocal against the Afghanistan and Iraq wars as another sad chapter in our government’s never ending false narrative to justify patently unconstitutional aggression, and equally so regarding the Ukrainian War that had no legitimate security benefit for the US but could lead to a nuclear confrontation with Russia.

However there is little to no criticism in the press regarding the revelation of government secrets about the Ukrainian War. This was not actually an intentional whistle blowing disclosure but an almost comical display of inept security regarding classified U.S. intelligence by IT support technician Airman Jack Teixeira on a social media gaming and chat group platform. The focus was all about how it happened, but curiously little about the content of yet another false government narrative. Why the silent press?  While the disclosed documents show that Ukraine will inevitably loose the war without direct NATO involvement as the loss of life in Ukraine is so drastic that at the current pace of slaughter there will soon not be enough able bodied Ukrainians alive to fight Russia much longer, a case of attrition leading to annihilation.

It’s apparent that Putin could care less as he’s banking on the simple fact that there are more Russians than Ukrainians, so attrition works for him. It’s also apparent that such a scenario makes inevitable either a direct confrontation among nuclear powers or an eventual Russian victory. Either way, as Mark Twain said, “The truth hurts but silence kills.” While President Biden uses the Ukrainian War as an opportunity for virtue signaling as the protector of democracy, he seems either ignorant or dismissive of the fact that we are supporting a Neo-Nazi regime.

Ukraine is hardly a democracy, nor is Zelensky a beacon of liberty. The Ukrainian oligarchs Ihor Kolomoisky and Mykola Zlochevsky are the main source of funds for the Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, funded and directed Zelensky’s presidential campaign, and own the media conglomerate that made him famous. They also control Burisma, the source of funds that paid Hunter Biden. It’s almost cartoonish that Zelensky is being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize while actually declaring all other political parties illegal but his own, controlling Ukraine’s media, and suggesting the use of nuclear weapons against Russia.  While it’s true that Putin is an aggressive dictatorial autocrat, Zelensky has shown himself more like him than not.

One of the cruel truths that Ellsberg exposed about the US policy in Viet Nam was that the Pentagon knew the reasons for the conflict that it fed Americans were lies, that the war could not be won, and that the people of Viet Nam, and Cambodia and Laos, were suffering as much under the regime we were supporting as were those in North Viet Nam. Yet we continued to send our youth to die for nothing, to the tune of about 58K. We can only hope that someone in the government will do for the Ukrainian War what Ellsberg did for the Viet Nam War. “It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.” Thomas Paine

“All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of experience, the mother of all knowledge.” Leonardo da Vinci

The term “science” comes from the classical Latin “scientia” meaning knowledge, and da Vinci’s quote above makes clear where that comes from. Knowledge based on experience and observation is called “empirical” rather than theoretical. This is an essential differentiation as an unproven theory is not knowledge, and therefore not real until it is proven to be so through experience and observation; if you want to understand what reality is, you rely on the empirical.

Aristotle stated that empiricism derives from the perception of our senses, which is the source of the concepts in terms of which we seek to understand reality. Another word for this is commonsense, an essential skill for survival and the most important one that we can teach our children; there is a definite learning experience in this as Mark Twain explains when he said that “Good decisions come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions.” Commonsense is a skill of logic, especially when considering that there are always consequences of what we decide to say and do.

It is apparent that common sense is not so common for governments as they repeatedly ignore empirical evidence and subsequently the obvious consequences of their policies, yet somehow expect different results; it’s like failing an open book test where history has recorded this. There are many examples of government perpetuating or repeating policies that make things worse; inflation is a great example. Repeatedly, based on some crisis the government either created or imagined, our money supply was increased, which meant more of it chasing goods and services. While the currency increase is monetary inflation, the inevitable consequence is price inflation. Governments do not admit to errors, they only seek to blame something or someone else, which in this case is greedy business; anyone with common sense should see through such deflections from reality.

There are many more examples where commonsense is ignored because most politicians are tone deaf to reality. To focus on a solution, we need first to identify a real problem, and empirical evidence is where to start; partisan narratives are not reality but virtue signaling that plays well for elections, but not for solutions, and if we embrace them, we may yet become the society of George Orwell’s 1984 where “The heresy of heresies was common sense.”

As with a prior post, this is one that was initially published 10/20/20. While the pandemic is behind us, and Trump has been replaced by Biden, we seem to be in a situation like that in the movie “Groundhog Day”, except that the figures and statistics have mostly gotten the worse.

Bubbles

Since my previous blog “Bubble Economy” on 11/13/19, that bubble has grown even more ominous as we are soon to exceed $30T in our national debt.  Does any rational person believe that the US will ever be able to repay such an egregious debt?

US Bonds, which used to be held in high regard by other sovereign states, principally Japan and China who at one time held 18% of US debt, are selling off by the billions. Fear that they would be holding the bag in the event of default is rising; it is not an irrational fear. To counter that lack of confidence the Federal Reserve bought huge amounts of US bonds with equally huge amounts of newly printed money from the UST; more air in that bubble.

With bonds, as interest rates fall prices rise, so with the lowest rates in history better to dump at a high since the yield is so pathetic.  But then where to go for yield?  Try the stock market, fed by such easy credit its valuations are pushing up prices beyond fundamental levels.  However, given that the easy credit is fed by debt, where will that lead?

Well, we’ve seen that movie before; it will lead to where it did in 1929, 2007 and….well hard to say, but sooner than anyone will want.  It may start on headline news, an algorithm gone wrong (or right), increased defaults and bankruptcies, all the above; inevitably such outsized debt, annually now larger than our GNP, will be called in and that will be ugly.

So why haven’t we as a nation learned from the past? Why do we make the same mistakes over and over again? An interesting comment of such behavior I recently read was from Thomas King, an American Indian writing about failed US policies regarding the native peoples of America, who wrote that “For an individual, one of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again in the same way and expecting different results. For a government, such behavior is called policy.”

Bangles

Alexis de Tocqueville was a French political philosopher who wrote “On Democracy in America” after touring the country in 1831.  His observations influenced much of written American history and political science in this country, and were comparatively critical of French democracy.  He found that the republican structure and constitution of the US was a reason for its success. However, he was critical of much of its social structure like slavery, religious zealotry, the social suppression of free expression, and the political tendencies to affect the outcome of elections legislatively; on this last item he wrote “The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public’s money.”  

Well it didn’t take long for that to happen; stimulus anyone? Like any bangle or trinket, such as the $24 worth of glass beads that bought Manhattan, it’s meant to allure us into thinking it’s actually something of value that will improve our lives, while actually buying them, defended as a means to protect us from ourselves by waving the pandemic flag in our face. It’s a way for us to willingly sell ourselves out to the very crooks that locked us down for our own good and destroyed our means of livelihood.

Like an opioid, it has dulled common sense to the point that we actually have a situation where the US government now represents 70% of our GNP; but there is no product involved, unless you call debt a product. Yet, that is exactly what is being sold to the American electorate by both presidential candidates.  In fact, despite resistance in his own party, Trump actually supports another stimulus in excess of what Biden proposes. Remember, this is the guy that has lived off other people’s money his whole life so this should not surprise anyone.

What has become obvious is that this election is on the auction block, will go to the highest bidder, and the account will be drawn from the pockets of the American people.

Boondoggles

Interesting word, first coined by a boy scout in 1927 to describe a uniform decoration; it later came to mean something of no value.  It was often ascribed to government programs during the New Deal era wasteful or pointless but carried on anyway due to policy or political motivations. We have this today in so many government programs too numerous to cover. Let’s just take something we have all participated in, whether we like it or not; I’m talking about Social Security.

There are many misconceptions about the original law establishing Social Security, like it was initially voluntary; it was discussed as a voluntary annuity, but enacted as mandatory. It is true that benefits were not to be taxed, but that was amended in 1983.  FICA deductions were supposed to be limited to the first $3K of income at 1%, but the limit and rate were constantly increased.

But why should there be a mandatory investment in an annuity that has no guarantee of return on investment like common annuities you can get from any financial institution, which have a guaranteed benefit and fixed rate? Answer is there shouldn’t be, but again this is defended as a means to protect us from ourselves, the panacea of all tyrannies.

Per the Trustees Report of last year, the Social Security Trust would go bankrupt by 2035. However, as it is a legislated entitlement, it must be funded, but with what? I once read an article in Forbes about the Madoff scandal wherein they gave a pretty good idea of exactly what a Ponzi Scheme is: “A Ponzi Scheme is a fraudulent investment operation where the operator, an individual or organization, pays returns to its investors from new capital paid to the operators by new investors, rather than from profit earned through legitimate sources.”

Now consider the plight of those “new investors”; they are anyone who is subject to FICA withholdings and who will not be 62, the earliest age you can claim benefits, by 2035.  Essentially, if you were born after 1973, you are paying into a soon to be bankrupt annuity.  Would you voluntarily do that? The same goes for Medicare and Medicaid, both funded by FICA withholdings and deductions from Social Security benefits.

Again, it is a legislated entitlement, so it must be funded. However, it is no longer a sustainable trust as its liabilities exceed its revenues, so that means more taxes, more debt, or a combination of both.  The Ponzi scheme collapsed and the angel investors to the rescue are….well you.

Now consider the ACA; it too was at first mandatory, but that mandate was deemed illegal, and its survival all together is likely to depend on Supreme Court review. If it were simply a network to provide information to acquire insurance it would at least have a viable legitimacy, but again, as with Social Security, voluntary is not how governments are prone to act. Choice is not an option when seeking the greater good.

End Game

While history has taught us innumerable times that you can’t spend your way out of debt, it is a lesson ignored. The most famous of those who proposed such madness was John Maynard Keynes. When Keynes was confronted with the failure of his ideas of endless spending and consumption as unsustainable in the long run and that they would prevent the markets from functioning properly, especially in recoveries, he cynically quipped that “In the long run, we will all be dead.”

When Trump was given a brief on America’s growing debt crisis in 2017 by the few remaining fiscally responsible members of his own party, his response was “Yeah, but I won’t be here.” The fact that this puts the futures of our children and grandchildren in jeopardy is irrelevant to narcissistic sociopaths like Trump and Keynes. The immediate need of those in power is to keep that power, and the means includes bribing the public with the public’s money.

Welcome to the United States of Debt.

This was a post published back on 03.07.20. As I said in my prior post, I will be publishing some old ones that I find relevant to our current times, so here you go.

I am not a superstitious person, but I don’t discount fate. I think fate in most cases is created by something you do or say, resulting in someone reacting to that, and in turn you responding, and suddenly you’re in a conversation that you never expected; suddenly fate is at play, unintentionally created.

Such is the case with my close encounter on the virtual market place of ideas called social media.  I came across some articles on Vox Populi that I found interesting and thoughtful, providing perspective on issues that engaged me despite the source, and I commented.  Vox Populi is in the words of its founder and publisher Michael Simms “… unashamedly progressive in its approach to politics…” Now as I have written before, the political label of “Progressive” to me is ambiguous, at times also exclusionary, and at other times bordering on deceptive to avoid being viewed as synonymous with socialism; labels in politics can be as misleading as those on cereals.

My comments apparently were well received and precipitated a series of exchanges with Michael Simms. So here you have an avowed Libertarian and Progressive connecting because of comments I made about articles he published that I found interesting and engaging. The articles were about the torture the US engaged in on the War-On-Terror, an obviously slanted test posted for readers to take based on song lyrics composed with a progressive message, and the US Warfare State.

So what is the perspective provided to me?  Well for one, this exchange reinforces my concern about labels.  What is a progressive anyway, other than an overused and at times generalized label, same as can be said about libertarian; in that sense we share a similar fate, i.e. generalization for media dissemination.

To some degree this is a self-inflicted wound.  Most who identify with these labels insist on certain characteristics that exclude others who may share many of the same beliefs. A consequence of this syndrome is the inability to define principles that can be communicated coherently. For those who are like me libertarians, do you know that there are those who also share that “label” but are socialists?

To be clear, I believe a libertarian is someone who supports a civil society founded on the core existential reality of the basic natural right that every individual human being owns themselves; from this all other rights are derived, and that this in turn “progresses” to how individuals interact not only in their own self-interest, but as a society.  Politically this means a system that protects individual liberties, and economically freedom in the market place to pursue what each individual sees as their own interests, free of coercion to the contrary.  

What I have found problematic in understanding progressives is ambiguity, and in some cases hostility, in this regard.  What I saw in these articles were connections to core libertarian beliefs, even if unintentional, but nevertheless apparent. I was well aware that Vox Populi was a progressive publication, which made what I read even more engaging.

At one point Michael invited me to write an article, asking “…would you have an article that is possibly publishable in VP?”, and at another time asking me to write an article for publication on VP for his review to see if it would be “…a good fit for Vox Populi.” 

Those last exchanges were disappointing, an opportunity lost. I think that all Americans, regardless of political affiliation or perspective, would agree that our current environment of tribal polarization is toxic to a productive political discourse. So call me a hopeless romantic, but I thought that a bridge across the political riff could be built based on some common ground like aversion to war, torture, etc.

Michael’s last message was “Thanks, John. I’ll continue reading your posts. Take care, Mike.” That last phrase “take care” is like a closed door, a farewell message essentially signally that we are not open to any ideas we find contrary to our own. I’ll have to live with that, but those at Vox Populi should not. The worst service we can do for our readers is to either cater only to what we think they want to hear, or insulate them from what we think they don’t.

“Bipartisan usually means that a larger-than-usual deception is being carried out.” George Carlin

This post is about some things that have happened recently that aptly illustrate what Carlin observed some years back. There are many examples of these, but I want to keep my posts short; better short so I don’t tax my small blog following with a lot of time to read them. In this post I will provide a few examples.

The recently crafted bipartisan Senate bill to address the border crisis was finally published; it is about 350 pages long, and full of so many legal loopholes as to be virtually meaningless. Add to this that we already have existing immigration laws that, if executed, would address the crisis. I am not referring to the various executive orders by the Trump administration that Biden’s subsequent executive orders reversed, but laws that already address the issues at hand. Further, the bill includes provisions for even more foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel, exceeding the funds included for border security, as if protecting the borders of other countries is somehow more important than protecting our own.

Then we are told that there is strong bipartisan support for the military action against Iranian proxies in the Middle East in retaliation for the attacks on our bases; few voices were raised objecting to what we are doing there in the first place. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently lectured against those few voices accusing them of a leadership lapse of isolationism. This guy needs to understand some founding principles as expressed by the founders themselves, like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, who clearly stated that that the US should not engage in alliances with any nation, but freely and peacefully engage in commerce with all.

Recently there were bipartisan Congressional hearings about the dangers of social media, during which various tech leaders were inappropriately attacked as if they were engaging in some criminal activity; the basis for such accusations were some tragic incidents involving children due to online bullying, dark messaging, and sexual targeting. While these same things, and worse, happened while I was a kid, they are more widely known now on social media. A bipartisan attack on free speech does not cure these ills, parental control and guidance would. We don’t need an Orwellian solution for what should be societal common sense.

Something that is commonly practiced by both major parties, a bipartisan default if you will, is playing the “saving democracy” card; Democrats accuse Trump of threatening democracy, while Republicans accuse Biden of selling it out for personal gain. The fact is that both parties do little or nothing to honor their oath of office to preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States. I recently came across a word that sent me to my dictionaries, a word that describes a condition known as alethophobia, a fear or dislike of the truth. Whether any of the above are examples of this, or just plain outright lies or equivocations, it seems as if it is an occupational hazard of politicians.

I also have found that there are other topics I wanted to write about, but in reviewing some prior posts of just a few years back, I found them relevant to the same situations we are experiencing now, or as Clarence Darrow once said, “History repeats itself. That’s one of the things wrong with history.” These posts will be republished following this one.

“Equivocation is halfway to lying and lying the whole way to hell.” William Penn

While polls soon after October 7^th showed that about 53% of US citizens supported Israel, that declined to 41% later in October and to 39% in November. Polls are a sketchy deal at best, but the trend is clear that there is a rise in antisemitism in the world; what is most alarming is that this includes America. The massive rallies and protests in support of Hamas are stunning; while I am not surprised about this in Europe and the Middle East, I am shocked about it in American cities and universities.

I was shocked as to how we got to the point where the horrors perpetrated by Hamas were being portrayed by many in government, the media, and universities as a war of Palestinian liberation. We even have the bizarre statement by the Associated Press that its membership should not use the word “terrorists” but “militants” when describing Hamas because it “politicizes” the conflict. When the New York Times and other legacy media accepted and reported as fact the claim by Hamas that Israel had bombed the Al-Shifa Hospital, the streets of America exploded with violent pro-Palestinian demonstrations and antisemitic rhetoric. While the story was a complete Hamas fabrication, retractions were not only late, but the New York Times subsequently went so far as to provide its own analysis that it could still have been by Israel, despite the overwhelming evidence by US and other intelligence agencies that it was a “misfired” rocket by Islamic Jihad, which actually landed in the parking lot.

The shock wore off, but not the revulsion that here in the USA, home of the free and to the world’s largest Jewish population outside of Israel, we have such an alarming rise in antisemitism. It is true that America has its share of racism with the KKK and other white supremacist groups; consider the WWI statement by Henry Ford that “I know who caused the war: German-Jewish bankers. What I oppose most is the international Jewish money power that is met in every war. That is what I oppose – a power that has no country and that can order the young men of all countries out to death.” That this statement of racial and ethnic hate was published by an icon of American industry should have shocked Americans, but apparently, like today, it was given a free pass.

While the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is one of the oldest in that region’s history, it does have its roots in something very basic and traditional; it’s about land, and who should own it, based on race and religion, the two most prevalent vehicles for hate as it has been for millennia. In recent history the truth about the UN resolution that created the nation of Israel is that it had serious flaws that have plagued both Israelis and the Palestinians for the last 75 years. However, this neither justifies the Hamas atrocities nor explains Western antisemitism. The former is a result of cultural clashes, and the latter is a result of political ideology.  

The cultural, and often violent confrontations between the Muslim and European worlds have plagued Europe and the Middle East from the crusades through to the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. The roots of Western antisemitism are also religious with the Inquisition and Pogroms being apparent examples. However, given the ever-receding religious context in the West does not adequately explain antisemitism in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, except to say that politics has become the new religion. Even though many Jews are what political scientists would say are in the left spectrum, various infamous regimes, such as Fascists, Nazis, Soviets, Peronists, etc., all have persecuted Jews to various extents, most horribly with the Holocaust. What they all had in common politically was socialism, which invariably requires authoritarianism. What the Jews are perceived as, including by Henry Ford, are money men, i.e., greedy capitalists.

While such thinking is empirically flawed, it is unfortunately pervasive, especially in Western universities. What is referred to as progressive is historically regressive, merely new look socialism; portraying Jews as greedy capitalists controlling the world is simply ignorant tribalism. This is consistent with the collectivist mentality of seeing people not as individuals, but solely as groups and through the ever-present racial prism; when Hamas supporters chant “From the river to the sea!”, what they are saying is its now high time to support the genocide of the Jews. What Western Hamas supporters fail to realize is that they have little if any commonality with the likes of Hamas; while the progressives claim socialist ideals, Hamas and other radical Islamists want a medieval theocracy, which would in effect eradicate many of the tenets of the progressive movement.

While the Biden administration has publicly expressed its support for Israel, it inappropriately lectures it about providing a “pause” (cease fire) for humanitarian relief in Gaza, while not calling for the same for the hostages Hamas took, until so reminded by Israel. While there have been about 80 attacks by Iranian proxy terrorist organizations on US bases and ships in the region, the administration has done little more than bomb warehouses and a few training centers; these are acts of war yet are treated as opportunities to prevent an escalation of violence in the region, which in fact is already on fire. In one press conference after another, when asked about support for Israel and deterrent action against Iran, we hear the ubiquitous default phrase of “Yes, but….” as they go on about how Israel must ensure the safety of the Palestinian people, or pause for humanitarian aid, or contain the conflict.

On December 5^th there was a House of Representatives’ hearing on the calls for Jewish genocide on the campuses of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; the responses by the presidents of these three elite institutions to a simple direct question of whether or not they considered such calls harassment under their campus policies were clear examples of cowardly equivocation, using such evasive terms as “…depending on the context…” went viral. The reactions of many alumni were encouragingly unequivocal, canceling contributions and calling for resignations or dismissals. Harvard’s famous alumnus, Cornel West, has repeatedly stated that the student groups at Harvard calling for the genocide of Jews were correct about Israel being the most responsible for the recent terrorist attacks but that such statements lacked nuanced context; that such equivocating statements about these atrocities comes from the Ivy League elite speaks volumes about the decay and decline of these American institutions.

There was a time before the Civil War where pro-slavery religious and political leaders justified it based on rather equivocating biblical and historical references; after the war, they justified the suppression of African American civil rights based on the same and on race. There were also those that would accept no equivocation about such evils, like the famous abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison, who made clear that “I am in earnest. I will not equivocate. I will not excuse. I will not retreat a single inch, and I will be heard.” Americans need to stand up and be heard, and not fear the truth that those who support such evils like Hamas, are not only antisemitic, but enemies of everything that is good.

“The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination.” Albert Einstein

We are being bombarded with endless talk about artificial intelligence, yet no one seems to be able to define it with any real clarity. Despite this, such luminaries as Elon Musk, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg meet behind closed doors with US Senators to discuss regulations about this as if it is an existential and imminent threat to the human race. We are warned that if left unregulated, it will eventually replace humans all together. Such catastrophizing is another example of creating a crisis where none exists, as if we don’t have enough people with such cognitive disorders already.

This is not what Einstein meant about intelligence and imagination. What he was saying is that real intelligence is the ability to create with the knowledge we have. Imagination is the cognitive ability to use what we learn through our senses; it is a uniquely human trait that can’t be mimicked by machines, even robots informed by computers. True, computers can be “programmed” for memory and logic, but only to the extent of the power in the software; all of that is human input.  However, humans make judgements about things all the time based on not just reasoning and logic, but individual values which are always subjective.

Not long ago at dinner with friends I had ordered one of my favorite seafoods, grilled octopus; what can I say, it is the Sicilian in me. I was then treated to a discourse on the fact that octopi are sentient beings. This is true, but so are all living things that have a central nervous system giving them perceptions that make them aware of their environment. I don’t know if this means they have emotions, but maybe; I know my dog does. I am not much of a beef eater, but my friends are, and the bovines in the animal kingdom have central nervous systems. I wonder if my friends will abstain from beef.

The phrase “artificial intelligence” seems like an oxymoron. While computers are becoming faster and more powerful at processing and calculating, they lack the cognitive ability to understand, including and most critically our fellow human beings. Despite all the attempts to mimic the human brain, an organ medical science readily admits we have little knowledge of, we are asked to believe our technocracy has the ability to do so. When such hubris combines with politics, nothing good will come of that. Technology is by definition the application of science to problem solving; that is not something to regulate, but contrary to catastrophizing, to nurture with the freedom to go wherever it may lead. Put another way, fear is not an alternative to imagination.

Let’s assume for the purpose of argument that artificial intelligence presents the threat to human existence these elites would have us believe; ever hear of the “kill switch”? You should as you use it every time you decide to shut the lights off. Techies are familiar with this as it’s the most obvious solution in the event that the catastrophizers are right about AI, i.e., kill the power. What if AI doesn’t allow that to happen? That is a really unintelligent question since AI is not a physical entity blocking human action. While the probability of the need to do this is beyond remote since humans program AI, the fact that we have that ability shows the ultimate reason why AI is no threat to us, i.e., we are real, AI is “artificial”.

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” Albert Einstein.