Why would senators and congressmen intentionally force the United States to the brink of financial disaster? Why would legislators drive us to default on our national debt and tell us that default will be a good thing? Why would billionaires fund grass roots organizations that have their members wave Confederate flags and spout hateful lies?… [read more]
Droning On
I recall seeing the first drones. Unmanned aircraft. I’m a pilot and thought the technology was nifty. I also admired the surveillance capabilities of those things. Protect the troops without endangering AWACs and helo crews. Find the bad guys. Like that. Then we started using these things to kill people at weddings. Now my friend… [read more]
George Orwell Was an Optimist
The NSA is spying on everyone and there is no privacy. The government lies about who it spies on, the things they look at and who has access to all that information. Although the NSA is minimally limited by law in what its spooks can do without a warrant from a FISA court, even then… [read more]
It Isn’t About a Website
It is a great and comforting validation that people with large megaphones and big mouths have focused on the ailing website of the Affordable Care Act. They show us that naked self-promotion of individual and collective stupidity lives on in perpetuity. Opponents of Obamacare wail and wring hands over the website. That dysfunctional site alone… [read more]
It Is Time
It has been 50 years, so the shock is gone, of course. The grief has passed for some and lingered for others, but the sense of loss remains palpable for most of us who remember. It was a loss of hope and of innocence for an entire generation and the blinding of a dream of… [read more]
If It Isn’t a Perfect 10 . . .
Look, it’s as plain as can be that the Affordable Care Act – Obamacare – was flawed from the start. Whatever your political views, the act focuses on payment, not medical care itself. And it doesn’t cover everyone. Besides, the stupid website doesn’t work. Just de-fund it, already. And while I’m thinking of it, our… [read more]
Jax Fablz: Where Bees Go
There were hives. Lots of hives. They were all over the Federation of Bee Hives. The drones worked hard, collecting pollen and bringing it back to the hives and the queens would look upon their work and say that it was good. But both the queens and the drones of the southern hives had too… [read more]
Another Shot In The Foot
The recent government shutdown over a stupid power play by right wing extremists, along with their threat to cause the United States to default on its debt, were more than just political theater and more even than a showdown episode. It was an exercise in self-destruction. Yes, it was destructive to the Republican Party. On… [read more]
R2D2 And You
A few days after one of my Money, Politics and Democracy presentations, an attendee wrote to me, saying, “After asking you a question at the DUUC presentation, I went home and began re-reading the Constitution, thinking that the Supreme Court decision re: Citizens United basically indicated that corporations were persons and therefore were entitled to… [read more]
Are You Ready?
Boomers are the ones who were told, “Don’t trust anyone over 30,” (thank you, Jerry Rubin), the ones who were going to change the world and who most certainly were never going to get old. But now we are past the point where we can refuse to trust anyone over 30, we did change the… [read more]
