political itch

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Mon, 08 Aug 2016 02:53:00 +0000

2016 Election Update: No Trump Supporter Friends for Me!

I have determined that any one of my friends who supports Trump can no longer be my friend. It is very fundamental. Trump is, I am convinced, clinically and definitionally deranged. Words come out of his mouth like a tossed salad with no syntactical connection. It would be impossible to diagram one of his sentences. His mind is free floating mush. He has no defining morality. He is incurious and does read books, newspapers or white papers. He watches the "shows" and listens to his own prodigious mind for insight on the issues facing our nation and our world. His election to the presidency would be a disaster domestically and internationally. He draws support from a significant part of the American population. Keep in mind that 50% of the population has an IQ of less than 100. That is not a very encouraging thought. Long term loyal Republicans are trapped by party orthodoxy. You must always support your party. They must be agonizing over the dilemma Trump creates for them.

As a long term Democrat I can say that I am not thrilled by Hillary Clinton. I will vote for her and be very happy to do so in the current context. I had wanted Joe Biden to run because Joe is authentic and qualified. Yes, he can say some ridiculous things but he is a solid and diligent politician. I have suffered Hillary fatigue. I have felt that fatigue largely because the Clinton's have been around for a generation and I am simply tired of them. I do believe Hillary is very qualified to be president. And I do not believe that she is a liar or dishonest. She has been attacked for the past 20 plus years by the right wing attack machine. I pay that no mind. Whitewater etc are all so much bullshit. Hillary will make a very good president and will keep the country on an even keel. Most important, her appointments to the Supreme Court will be qualified candidates. They will not be right wing ideologues in the same vein as Scalia, Thomas or Alito. Praise the Lord for that result.

So...tell me you are voting for Trump and you and I are done forever. Farewell will be my last words to you.

2016!

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Thu, 18 Feb 2016 17:27:00 +0000

I have not posted on my blog, Political Itch, for four years. While the primary season is now well underway, I have not felt compelled to post. The Republican candidates for President are distressingly bad with the exception of John Kasich who is clearly the most qualified and most thoughtful of the current lot.

Jeb Bush gives the impression that he would rather being doing something else. I don't think he really wants to be running for President. It was expected of him and it was his turn so he felt compelled to get in the race. I think he is fundamentally a decent person but he should not be running for President.

Rubio, Cruz and Trump are equally terrifying, each for their own reasons. Trump defines narcissism!
He is a blowhard and very difficult to take seriously, but I think we must. At the end of the day he is not electable. I have been calling him the Pillsbury dough-boy! His physician said he was in the best condition of anyone who had ever run for President. How ridiculous! Everything about Trump exudes hyperbole and excess.

Cruz defines mendacity. He will say anything to curry favor with and pander to the electorate. He is similar to Trump in his self-promotion and ambition. He looks like a rat and acts like one as well. Some make light of the fact that he has no friends and no supporters in the US Senate. But, can't you tell a person by the friends they keep....and if you keep none doesn't that mean something as well?
His one professed friend is Peter Thiel, the libertartian investor who wants to create a floating nation free from the constraints of government....to be inhabited one imagines by the one percent and served by "illegal immigrants." The fact that Cruz wears cowboy boots also offends me. He may be from Texas, but he is Ivy League at heart and a big hat, no cattle kind of guy.

Rubio looks like a teenager and is clearly not ready for prime time. The arc of his career, his education and background provide to me the picture of a person who has been perpetually ahead of his skis! And, he wears shoes with high heels! Pretty funny.

I like the fact that Bernie Sanders is raising serious issues and moving them into the national dialogue. That is important. I will write more about that in the future. And poor Hillary. I have such Hillary fatigue. More about that later as well.

Barack Obama has been the coolest President we have had in a long time. David Brooks wrote a wistful piece on Obama which is interesting coming from his Republican (albeit it centrist and moderate point of view). Here is a link to that column: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/09/opinion/i-miss-barack-obama.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fdavid-brooks&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=collection&_r=0

Stay tuned! The world is a bit upside down right now! That seems to be a rather constant state since the days of Ozzie and Harriet. Although, the 1958 that the Republicans want to embrace only exists on television re-runs.

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 13:41:00 +0000

This political season has been mind-numbing. The primary campaign on the Republican side was comprised of the seven dwarfs...idiots all. Willard Mitt Romney, the Mormon with the magic underwear and the 180 position pivot on every issue that mattered to the hard right Tea Party was the inevitable nominee...as he was the most reasonable of a very sorry crowd. While Obama has disappointed the most rabid progressives he has done an admirable job on most issues and is undeniably smart. In fact, he may be his intelligence which causes him most of his difficulties...as his internal dialogue is no doubt: "Do I really have to deal with these idiots....with no intellectual integrity and no pragmatic sense of what is good for America?" His Denver debate performance underscored that tendency. I haven't posted this season...it just seemed too ridiculous to point out the obvious. But, I have heard people, otherwise fairly decent straight forward folks say they were voting for Romney...usually by repeating some canard from the Republican right about the economy. I have voted early...and I voted for Obama. I gave Romney no consideration whatsoever. How people could vote for Obama four years ago and not this time I will never understand....other than their vote was, sadly, uninformed on both occasions. The New Yorker has endorsed Obama. As a reader of that elite publication I feel confirmed in my vote. They put well the reasons for another Obama term. The reasons are many: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2012/10/29/121029taco_talk_editors More later...

Newt is a nut case!

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 03:41:00 +0000

Yesterday on a Sunday television talk show, Newt Gingrich, recently soaring into the lead in the Republican Presidential polls, upped the ante and increased the ferocity of his rhetoric in the face of eroding support. It seemed to be classic Newt! He has had a historical tendency to engage in rhetorical flourish and verbal pyrotechnics. It seems to be a way for him to garner attention. It fits with his self-absorbed "look at me" adolescent way of gaining attention.

So, yesterday Newt said that he would use the Capitol police or the US Marshall's service to arrest judges whose rulings violate Gingrich's self appointed sense of US Constitutional rectitude. In Newt's view, these errant judges would be brought before the Congress to explain their ruling and if they failed to do so they would be impeached. The impeachment process has historically been used as a consequence of personal indiscretion. In Newt's view, a judicial ruling at odds with the view of a portion of the public (Tea Party nut cases for example)would be subject to review and correction.

Newt is an alleged scholar with a PhD from Tulane. I presume he has never read Marbury vs. Madison and understood the underpinnings of our independent judiciary.
Newt's notion would destroy the independence of the judiciary. It is an appalling idea.

The polarized political environment in which we live causes candidates with insufficient intellectual mettle to pander to a narrow core constituency that lives in a fear based reality. In Newt's view and theirs, the world would be a better place but for those "activist" judges. If it were only that simple.

What a crazy time! I can't wait for the next ridiculous proposal from Newt.

Occupy Wall Street

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:53:00 +0000

Occupy Wall Street

During the early 1970’s I attended law school at the University of California at Davis. The law school, named King Hall, after the then recently assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, attracted a fair number of students who were active participants in that tumultuous period in our history.

A group of my fellow law students and I organized an effort to blockade trains carrying munitions to the Port of Oakland for shipment to Vietnam. The campus and local police cleared the tracks, with a few arrests but no pepper spray or other such acts of violence. Then sitting California Governor Ronald Reagan told a newspaper that the activists in Davis were “bums.”

Bums?

Hardly! We were law students exercising our first amendment rights.
We responded to the Governor’s mischaracterization of us by putting on suits (some of us had to borrow one – see photo below) and ties and headed to the Governor’s office in Sacramento.

We called for law students from all over the Bay Area to join us in a peaceful demonstration in Reagan’s office. Our fellow law students responded and we engaged in a “sit-in” and for hours read the United States Constitution aloud, over and over again.

Our hope was that we” bums” could teach the governor something about protest in a free society.

From his record as Governor and President I am not sure we taught the great communicator anything. But we did capture the attention of the media and people across the country, who applauded our efforts.

Now, forty years later, I watched in shock at the videos of the UC Davis police pepper spraying students who were peacefully sitting on the Quad in the middle of campus. The Quad at UC Davis is the primary gathering place for students. It is akin to Speaker’s Corner in London’s Hyde Park. On the Quad, card tables with literature promoting student organizations, and spontaneous political protests compete with Frisbees and undergraduate mating rituals for attention.

The vivid images from the campus of UC Davis galvanized my fellow alums. We flooded the Chancellor’s office with emails. We implored the Dean of the law school to take action and along with the law students and faculty to support the protesters rights and monitor the situation while creating a teaching moment.

Those of us who read the constitution to the governor that day years ago have spent long careers as lawyers, judges, businessmen and elected officials trying to make positive and lasting change in our society. Now the Occupy Wall Street movement, and the events at Davis have invigorated us again to remember that striving for equality and an open society never ceases.

As an aging Boomer, I am now re-engaged in part because of the peaceful protest at my alma mater, and the outrageous police reaction to that protest. The Occupy Wall Street movement gains traction in part as a consequence of the over reaction by police. Thanks to those excesses my own support for the inchoate goals of the Occupy Wall Street movement will no longer be passive. And, with less hair on my head and a ready supply of suits and ties, I can join the protesters without being called a bum.

Ground Hog Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:03:00 +0000

I have decided to reactivate and once again begin to scratch my Political Itch! I do have a sense of deja vu. It seems just moments ago that we were experiencing the run up to the 2008 election. These four years have had a velocity that is breathtaking. I suppose that is, in part, a consequence of my ever increasing age. Four years is a smaller portion of my life with each passing day! That velocity may also be a function of the acceleration of our lives through the ever strident 24/7 news flood and the broad reach of social media. I suppose that I will have to tweet my posts to Political Itch and post them to my Facebook wall. LOL! Pretty funny.

So, here goes again. Look forward to my rants. In the words of a forgotten hipster from the 1960's "Stay high, keep moving and give all of yourself away!"

Thanks

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:08:00 +0000

Thanks to everyone who, over the past twelve months, read my posts on Political Itch.
What an amazing political year it was. I will no longer be scratching my political itch. I will, however, reactivate my other blogs, www.cybersamizdat.blogspot.com and www.poetrysmackdown.blogspot.com

Thanks for visiting.

Amen

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 22:38:00 +0000

“Never doubt that a small group of committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

Margaret Mead

A Reservoir of Emotion

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 05:03:00 +0000

Talking today with a friend about the Presidential election, we shared some stories of working forty and fifty years ago, as liberal organizers, to make a difference in a world that was then overtly racist and discriminatory.

It is amazing to consider. My first public effort occurred in the first weeks of December of 1963. I was a sophomore at Washington State University and, while involved in student government, organized a week long symposium called "Student Get Off Your Apathy." Some of you will recall the early stirrings on campus during those times. I was specifically responsible for a day dealing with civil rights issues. I invited a speaker to come from Monroe, North Carolina, where the so-called "Monroe Movement," was an early catalyst for the civil disobedience that would transform the South.

Just five years later I was working in the rural south helping to organize the disenfranchised and create opportunities (see posts on that subject at www.cybersamizdat.com). It was very basic, elemental work to provide basic services, and by the way, register people to vote who had never considered that to be an option. I know that is hard for people today to understand, but it was indeed the case.

Now, we are on the cusp of electing an African-American President of these United States. And, as my friend and I talked today, I could feel a reservoir of emotion, in some deep hidden place, begin to well.

It is a common thing, I believe. That the banal aspects of life, including those occasional soaring idealistic goals we commit ourselves to, leave small deposits of emotion as we move through our lives. A reservoir of emotion will fill, never to overflowing, until some event occurs; a trigger which releases the flood.

Somehow, I sense such an emotional release will come with the election of Barack Obama. It is time for that to happen. It will be transforming and liberating for a great majority of us and for those around the world who look to us. I believe that.

Washington State's former governor, Gary Locke, was just in China. A Chinese official, a woman, asked Locke who he thought would win the Presidential election. He said, "Barack Obama." The Chinese woman replied, "American people are beautiful."
I hope and pray it is so.

Democracy at Home and Abroad

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 03:59:00 +0000

It is so ironic that the Republicans and Bush the Lesser with their neo-con strike force profess such fervent belief in the democratic process and the spread of democracy across the world, and recently, especially in the Middle East, while they undermine it in America.

Remember how excited Bush the Lesser was about the red fingers of the Iraqi's when they had completed voting several years ago (right after Mission Accomplished).

The irony, of course, it that in that face of that professed passion for the democratic process, the Republicans are the masters and most aggressive purveyors of voter suppression techniques. While the Democrats are working the GOTV effort with all their vigor, the Republicans don't want people to vote. How ironic for such champions of democracy.

It appears that the Republicans may favor democracy and the democratic process overseas more than they do in America.

Marxist

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 14:37:00 +0000

Over the past several days a cabal of right wing nut cases have gotten on the Obama/Marxist bandwagon. I think I can follow the trail of this absurd talking point. It started with the Florida "newscaster" who asked Biden if Obama was a Marxist. Biden, appropriately, laughed and asked if she was serious and then provided a thoughtful answer.

In the media frenzy to find the latest pungent sound bite, the left picked up the video clip so that my pals and I could laugh out loud at the stupidity and vacuousness of the sheep on the right. Fox, true to form, picked up the Marxist theme. Fox moved the Marxist idiocy into heavy repetition. Then Fox bloviator O'Reilly(Oily)brought the Florida bimbo newscaster(and wife of a Republican operative)onto his show. Of course, Rush Limburger was all over the subject

Next, the Obama/Marxist talking point needed to gain support from senior, thoughtful Republicans in order to gain a strong perch in the political lexicon. Scanning the landscape for the most thoughtful, respected and well credentialed senior Republican to carry water on the Obama/Marxist tripe, they found the former pest control officer ("The Exterminator") Tom Delay.

Delay was thrilled to get some media time. As one of the most ethically challenged former members of Congress, Delay was rummaging in the dustbin of history and the dregs of right wingnut weekend symposia and was desperate for some time on the big stage again. The Obama/Marxist ploy was the perfect opportunity.

If Tom Delay thinks Obama is a Marxist then it must be true. Yeah, and Tom Delay is a great American and statesman when monkeys fly out of my ass.

Flat Screen TV

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 05:22:00 +0000

The economic shock of these past few weeks has been a body blow to the mindless consumerism that infects the United States. Consumer spending has fallen off a cliff.

I think this is a good thing. As I have been saying to friends, "Who needs another flat screen TV." When put in those terms it does seem patently ridiculous. Candidly, no one needs a flat screen TV. We need food and shelter, and given the stupendous increase in obesity and the proclivity for McMansion sized houses, it looks to me like we need a little less food and shelter as well.

Somehow, along the way, things have gotten grievously out of wack. We consume crap we don't need. We go into debt to consume more crap we don't need. I am reminded of the inspiring words from Bush the Lesser after 9/11 when he encouraged us to shop.

And, I am also reminded of the lines from the Dire Straits song from the early 1980's:

Get your money for nothin' get your chicks for free.
I want my flat screen TV

An Elemental Observation

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:21:00 +0000

When we elect a President, we are electing the leader of our country. Implicit is the notion that the person elected should exhibit leadership. They should, with the advice and counsel of the people, through their elected representatives, shape the vision and direction for our nation and articulate that vision.

Organizations, over time, begin to exhibit the tone and character of their leader. Whether our experience has been in the public or private sectors we have all experienced that in our own lives. The organization becomes reflective of its leader.

In this presidential election we have certainly witnessed the force of leadership, or lack thereof, in each campaign.

Personally, I have never witnessed a campaign as well run as the Obama campaign. It has been extremely disciplined. It has stayed on message throughout. Its ground game has known no equal. There has been no apparent dissension among its ranks.
Contrast that to the McCain campaign. It has had no strategy but has lurched from tactic to tactic. Dissension has been rampant.

The stark differences between the two campaigns are nothing other than reflections of the sharp contrasts in the quality of the leadership of Barack Obama and John McCain. If voters were to do nothing more than look at the two campaigns and how they are run they would find evidence aplenty for making a thoughtful decision about who should be our next President.

The Best Campaign Ad

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 02:02:00 +0000

Colin Powell

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:56:00 +0000

The appearance by Colin Powell on Meet the Press this morning was much anticipated. I was awake on the left coast Sunday morning at 6:00AM to catch the live broadcast. The Brokaw interview was artful and Powell was wonderfully well spoken in his answers.

We waited anxiously for the ultimate question. Had Powell made a decision whom to support for the Presidency? His long answer hit all of the bullet points that thoughtful Americans list when considering the same question.

It is always easy, in the long political theater that comprises our presidential election cycle, to revert to type and echo the narrow interest of our particular cohort. Certainly, in this blog, I have warmly embraced the irreverent, the obscene, the cynical or sarcastic, while pushing for my firmly held point of view.

All of us, in our quiet way, love this country. We are justly proud of what it stands for and what is represents, in finest form, both at home and abroad. Just as you can unconditionally love a child but disapprove of its behavior, you may unconditionally love your country while finding fault with its behavior and the course it has chosen.

In considering this election, thoughtful Americans, I believe, can, as did Colin Powell, come to a belief that Barack Obama is the wisest choice for President of the United States.

Many of us have, over the years, respected John McCain, not only for his historic experience, but also for his dedication to independence and his forthright voice of those independent views. We had no illusions that his maverick quality may have simply been an articulate framing of his consistent reckless behavior, going back across the sweep of this life. That recklessness found latest form in his choice of the unqualified Sarah Palin for his Vice-Presidential running mate and his unfocused response to the current economic crisis. As several wise commentators have put it, he hasn't been "Presidential."

At the same time, the Republic Party has been on an ever slippery slope embracing the issues that drive its narrow base of ill-informed, God fearing, "real Americans," whomever they may be.

In the broadest terms, I see this election as the struggle between Fear and Hope. Or, put in the new age context, it is the inherent struggle between Fear and Love.
Fear drives so much of human decision making. Listening to some of the YouTube clips at Palin rally's I have been chilled by the unthinking fear that comes from the lips of her supporters.

In my view, Obama appeals that noble side of our humanity. He is a very thoughtful man who will listen to wise advisors and consider well all of the ramifications of his decisions. He is charismatic and his eloquence is compellling. Is there anything wrong with eloquence? I think not. We need to be uplifted in this dreary time. It is a time that calls for Hope and Love.

Obama, as a man raised in the third culture, will, to use Powell's term, "electrify" the nation and the world. At the same time, I see in him a man of tremendous discipline. His campaign has been the best organized and most focused of any I have witnessed during my lifetime. I believe that all that we do reflects all that we are. Obama's campaign reflects who he is. Leadership does, indeed, come from the top. Through that lenses, John McCain comes up lacking.

Clogged Arteries

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 05:02:00 +0000

I have just finished reading Barton Gellman's splendid new book on the Cheney Vice Presidency, Angler. It is a compelling and chilling read.

Angler is the Secret Service code name for Cheney. It derives from his affection for fly-fishing in Wyoming. In the Ford Administration where he served as Chief of Staff for a time he was code named Backseat. I would have given him the code name Clogged Arteries.

Gellman gathers together all of the damning information we have picked up bit by bit over the years. He paints an overwhelmingly chilling portrait of a demonic man with firmly held beliefs who subverted our constitutionally based rule of law to carve out unlimited power for the executive and dance around statutory and constitutional limits on bad behavior.

There can be no doubt that a large handful of people inside the White House, the CIA, the NSA and the Department of Justice broke the law. There was a clear criminal conspiracy surrounding the issuance of unvetted Presidential orders on the treatment of detainees. And, it was all orchestrated by Clogged Arteries and signed off on by an incurious President.

Mark my words! There will be pardons issued by President Bush late on January 19, 2009, for as many as twenty people in his administration who run the risk of being criminally charged for their role in the conspiracy. Those pardons, issued before the charging or conviction of a crime will be similar to Ford's pardon of Nixon.

That will, however, not obviate the risk those people will face when they travel outside the United States. They will run the same risk as Pinochet when he was arrested for his Chilean crimes while in Europe. The Clogged Arteries cabal will travel internationally at great risk.

That won't affect Clogged Arteries. He is a short timer, and not just in the White House.

My People, Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:58:00 +0000

We flew into Grand Forks, ND last Thursday. The woman at the Avis counter said, "Nice Norwegian sweater, ya." I knew I was in my ancestral home. The sweater, a family heirloom, was worn as camouflage. It was working.

We walked outside and a couple of young men drove up in our rental car. I asked, "Do you want to check our rental agreement and ID?" "Naw," they said. There were no metal stakes ready to impale us. We had landed in a twilight zone.

As we drove east, the landscape is flat as a Swedish pancake. We headed out into northwest Minnesota into the area homesteaded by our grandfather. The plan was to visit the family homestead for the first time and meet as many relatives as possible. We really had no idea what to expect.

Our family lived just north of a couple of small towns, Trail and Gully. They each have a population of 50 or 60 people. Once vital, like so many small towns in the region they have all dried up. There is usually one tavern. Maybe a restaurant. Maybe a gas station. Plenty of empty buildings.

Thursday night we ate dinner in Fosston. I had Walleye, as in Walleye Pike, a common lake fish of the region. In my big city, nuanced way, I asked the waitress where the Walleye came from. In Seattle we always want to know if the fish we are about to eat is "line caught by a sensitive fisherman." The waitress, responding to my questions said, "The Walleye comes from the company that sells us the fish." Well, alrighty then. Silly me.

Saturday night we went to the Walleye Dinner at the American Legion hall in Gonvick, population 262. It was a packed house. Walleye filet, baked potato, cold slaw and a roll for $10.

Times are tough. They have been tough forever. No jobs for young people, who all leave town. Lots of alcoholism. The economic downturn won't effect Trail, Gully or Gonvick. People were heading out to get a deer. The season opened on Saturday. Everyone was wearing the real camouflage. I had been wearing my favorite baseball cap from my daughter's Pittsburgh Ballet Theater. In Gully I felt a bit like a fruitcake wearing a ballet cap. Fortunately, our cousin runs the Gully Farmer's Co-op and graciously gave my brother and I camouflage co-op baseball caps. My brother calls them "gimme hats," as in standing at the cash register and saying, "Gimme one of those." They don't have "gimme hats" on Wall Street.

I did hear a couple of remarks about the bailout. People thought it was a bad idea. But then, they thought it was a good idea to get farm price supports and get paid to keep their land in the CRP (the conservation program where you are paid to not grow crops). Funny how that works. We are inhibited by our distaste for socialism except when it puts money in our pockets. I have an entire side of my family that holds to that oxymoronic position.

On the way home, we passed through the Minneapolis Airport. We asked the sweet 80 year old woman at the Information booth how to find the Larry Craig bathroom. She said, "That is disgusting." We chatted a bit and she volunteered that she had just voted absentee and mailed her ballot the day before. She went on to say, "I voted for Al Franken and Obama. You don't think I am stupid do you?" She was wonderful.

We spent three days off the grid. No cell service at all. It is another world. People are good and decent and hard working. The cratering of Lehman or Morgan Stanley will not, in any way that I could see, change their reality.

My People

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:30:00 +0000

On Thursday my brother and I travel to northern Minnesota to visit the homestead where our father was born in 1915. We have a few hundred relatives in the region. In preparation for the trip we have been listening to Prairie Home Companion on NPR and watching the Coen Brother's Fargo on a continuous loop.

I have found myself slipping into a Scandinavian lilt. I grew up around that wholesome accent. Some wag has, however, raised my ire by a completely unfair juxtaposition of Sarah Palin and Marge Gunderson.

Joe Six Pack

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 05:14:00 +0000

I have been thinking about the debate these past couple of days. I have many impressions. First, it wasn't a debate. Those who say Palin was a great debater are idiots. If this had been a college debate she would have flunked. It fact, I viewed it as offensive, rather than cute, when she said she would say what she wanted to say and not answer the questions. She would speak to the American people How presumptuous and disrespectful of the process.

Her voice is horrible. My daughter called me to say she couldn't stand to listen to Palin. The absence of anything approaching common diction,syntax and accepted grammatical standards of speech is appalling.

She had to look at her three by five cards to get the answers. She talked in sound bites. The format worked for her, because she didn't have to deal with follow up questions. That was her downfall in the TWO interviews she has had thus far that qualify as REAL interviews. The Fox interviews and those by "in the tank" commentators are bullshit. An example is the clarification interview on Fox yesterday where she identified three Supreme Court cases and named three news sources. It was unadulterated bullshit.

It was something to watch the likes of Giuliani do post debate spin and call her the best they have ever seen. Biden, by the way, did a first class job. I was anxious that he might talk too much or make a significant gaff. The only one I heard was Bosniak. That was actually kind of funny. I like Biden.

The Joe Six Pack reference of Palin is, however, what I want to focus on. The follow up question is, "Just who is Joe Six Pack." In my experience Joe Six Pack is a marginally educated white guy with a gut, and a propensity to over consume alcohol. He watches professional team sports and couldn't run a 10K or around the block to save his soul. Joe Six Pack is not a very attractive guy.

What is so interesting about Joe Six Pack and Palin's populist pitch to that demographic is the fact that the Republican's fundamentally don't give a shit about that guy. In fact, all the Republican positions are antithetical to Joe Six Pack, except he doesn't appreciate that fact. And, it is Joe Six Pack's sons and daughters who comprise the overwhelming number of young men and women who die in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Analysis of the First Debate

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:29:00 +0000

Several commentators have remarked on McCain's failure to look at Obama during last night's debate. A PhD who focuses on cognitive and social behavior in monkey's posted the following comment on Talking Points Memo

"I think people really are missing the point about McCain's failure to look at Obama. McCain was afraid of Obama. It was really clear--look at how much McCain blinked in the first half hour. I study monkey behavior--low ranking monkeys don't look at high ranking monkeys. In a physical, instinctive sense, Obama owned McCain tonight and I think the instant polling reflects that."

Makes sense to me. My earlier post on "Pipsqueak for President," is a variation on this point. It is hard to be Alpha when you are tiny.

Cafferty on Palin

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:06:00 +0000

Hilarious

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:53:00 +0000

Yesterday, at an estate in Hunt's Point, Washngton, Cindi McCain and Todd Palin, appeared at a fund raiser attended by 250 people who paid $1000 each for the wonderful experience of seeing a peroxided upscale sorority blonde and snow mobile racer standing side by side.

I love the idea of Cindi McCain hanging with someone like Todd Palin. She really does strike me as the type of person who loves to mingle with the little people. Yeah. Really. Cindi McCain sells beer to those folks. But, she drinks chardonnay.

As reported in the Seattle Times(http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008201581_prezdonors25m.html), McCain spoke for 15 minutes and Palin for 10. That must have been a hoot. Apparently Todd said, "People been making fun of Sarah. I seen Russia from Alaska. You can see it." Then he touched upon drillin' for oil. A guest asked him whether or not Alaska oil would simply go into the global market as opposed to flowing directly into gas stations in the United States. He answered. "Alaska oil goes right into the United States." After completing his overview of energy policy he went into an extended discourse on the pros and cons of two cycle vs. four cycle snow mobile engines.

Cindi McCain asked for another chardonnay.

Postponing the Inevitable

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 03:02:00 +0000

McCain latest Hail Mary move is absolutely true to form. Let's postpone the debates. Let's put the campaign on hold while we rush to Washington to try to fix the economy. Of course, McCain has not made a single vote in the Senate in five months and is, by his own admission, utterly clueless regarding the economy.

I see it as a bonehead move. Lets take attention away from the candidates and the issues. It is similar to the faux concern during the first day of the Republican convention about the hurricane hitting the gulf coast.

But, the idea to postpone the debates and stall the campaign causes me to think of two prior instances where postponement of elections was contemplated. The first was commonly known. Giuliani wanted to continue as mayor of New York City and postpone the election that brought Bloomberg into the office. That trial balloon was a non-starter and was shot down by everyone but Giuliani.

There was an earlier exercise aimed at postponing an election which has received little coverage. It is little known, but the Nixon White House had the Rand Corporation investigate the impact and consequence of postponing the 1972 Presidential election. The exercise came to naught, and the mere fact that such an undertaking even occurred has now fallen into the dustbin of history and is denied.

Too Big To Fail

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:06:00 +0000

I have been watching the Paulson Bernanke testimony before the United States Senate this morning. On several occasions I have heard that companies that have been bailed out have been "too big to fail." Paulson, in particular, has also said that the regulatory environment has been insufficient to the task, having been designed in a different time and for different circumstances.

The obvious issue on the table for the American taxpayers is that we can never again allow any company become too big to fail. When that occurs, the taxpayer becomes the inevitable guarantor of survival. In some respects we have to refine the scope of anti-trust laws. It is one thing for a company to have a monopoly in a business category. That was one of the intents of anti-trust legislation. It seems logical to look at another category of regulatory oversight.

If a company begins to get so large or powerful so as to impact the economy adversely if it fails then the regulatory apparatus could place a governor on that company's growth. It seems to make sense to never again allow any company to become too big to fail.

That, however, runs counter to the American capitalist ethic and the drive to "go big or go home."

Palin Meets War Criminal Henry Kissinger

noreply@blogger.com (Ron Erickson) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 23:37:00 +0000

On this coming Tuesday Sarah Palin is scheduled to meet war criminal Henry Kissinger. This is part of her grooming for the Vice Presidency. It is also the process whereby she accumulates gravitas and insight in how the world works.

I wonder if she knows that Kissinger conspired with Nixon to keep the War in Vietnam going a few extra years costing the unnecessary deaths of 20,000 young Americans? I truly doubt it.

What transition Henry has had. From kept factotum to alleged statesman with a global reach. I first ran across Kissinger when I worked for Nelson Rockefeller. Nelson kept Henry, the smart professor, with a few hundred thousand dollars and a job for his preternaturally tall wife Nancy McGinnis Kissinger.

I remember a day in New York that provided all the insight a young man ever needed about how the world worked. Six cattlemen arrived in New York to meet with Rockefeller. These were truly "big hat, big cattle" ranchers including Belton Kleberg Johnson of the King Ranch in Texas.

They were concerned that we were sending grain to the Soviets which increased their cost of fattening cattle for market. It was a pocketbook issue. They wanted the United States to stop sending grain to the Soviets, and instead, send beef. Nelson Rockefeller was always a man of action. So, in the midst of the meeting he called his assistant and said, "Get Henry on the phone." Kissinger, at the time, was Nixon's Secretary of State and was heading to Moscow in a day or two on an important diplomatic mission. Henry was instantly on the phone. He was responsive to Rockefeller.

Nelson Rockefeller explained the issue to Kissinger on the phone while in the midst of the cattlemen's meeting. I have no doubt that Kissinger did not mention beef in Moscow, but the cattlemen were happy.

Will Palin leave her Kissinger meet and greet with any insight about how the real power in America plays the big game?