Wayward Landlubber

There's a joke among economists and Civil Rights activists: Q: What is the difference between libertarians and civil libertarians? A) We're civil. You Leonard, graduated from Cornell University and Cornell Law School. That's a prestigious higher education. Many of us wonder how someone with such distinguished scholarship can speak with such imprecision. Is it because you are a Republican? They seem to have a distance to travel between word usage and word meaning. Do we have evidence to bolster our statement? Yes! You people give us plenty of examples. You even elected an example this year for president, after an undistinguished first term. For someone of your credentials to speak with the level of intolerance that we have come to expect from you people means, either you are speaking down to us, or you do not care to speak with us. On a recent day you were interviewed on NPR's Morning Edition. In that interview you said quite explicitely that you want to "crush libe...

A friend of mine, a retired teacher and swimming coach, asked me what we do now. This query was prompted by the recent presidential election, which in the future may become more like Russia's elections. Or Hungary's. We are now faced with a president who fancies himself a 21st century Hitler. As this letter is written, he is assembling a cabinet that is filled with unqualified people ready to swear fealty to this demigogue-to-be. An attorney General who has been credibly charged with drug abuse and sex-trafficking. A Director of National Intelligence who has not exhibited intelligence, and has been accused of being uncomfortably close to Vladimir Putin. A Director of Homeland Security who shot her puppy because he wouldn't behave. That is only three of close to two-dozen of the least competent people to lead massive public bureaucracies, and growing daily. A paranoid observer might think this is being done by design. As if the objective is to disassemble the administrative ...

It was nearing closing time at our county Democratic HQ. She walked in the door carefully, not advancing towards the desk where I sat, or the work table where Juli and Margo sat, but staying close to the door. She wanted a paper, 'I voted sticker'. It was her first time voting. Upon hearing that, we congratulated her and asked her some of her first impressions. She is an 18 year-old Hispanic girl who pre-registered at 16. She has been waiting these two years for this day. Juli bought her an I VOTED Button so she can save it in her scrapbook. " You Will remember this day all of your life", Juli said. We then shared our own first-time voting experiences. What a mixed bag of voting experiences this young Hispanic girl must be experiencing. My own first time, I voted to re-elect Tom McCall, a Republican, for governor. I have never regretted that vote, even as I detest the party he was part of. In subseqent elections I would vote to re-elect Mark Hatfield and Bob Packwood....

November 5 is nearly here. Whatever happens after the votes are tallied, we are not done. This is one battle, the war will be a protracted one. Maybe I am being hyperbolic calling this a war. But we have accepted the election contest this way since Newt Gingrich was focused on the House speakership. Gingerich seemed to have the impression that politics is a winner take-all proposition. Do not forget for a minute that anti-tax activist and Heritage Foundation shill, Grover Norquist was telling Republican legislators in the 1990's that "bi-partisanship is the moral equivolent of daterape". That statement should draw a puzzled scratching of the head. It does not, on one side of the political aisle. We Democrats are far to the left, as viewed by Republicans, even if we are to the right of Bernie. Yet woe unto the Republican contender that steps into centrist territory. To make matters worse this pugilistic event is played by the Republican side without Marquis of Queenesbury ...

There was a time within memory when you could find better angels within the two parties. We did not need to agree on policy to acknowledge that their belief was sound. We just did not wish to pass their laws for reasons we felt were sound. This is not one of those times. Our political dysphoria has gotten to the point that one side denies the existence of that dysphoria. Denies the need for scientists, denies the need for vaccines, denies respect to any learning beyond their stupid opinion. But it's worse than that. Because those lesser angels (I may be a lesser angel, but at least I'm not one of them) are only a response to what is handed down from some ersatz Mt. Olympus,  where all laws are handed down, when democracy is no longer honored. We still have a say in who goes there, so does everyone else. We have worked to achieve that. Not all of us, given recent history, have proven to be thoughtful, not all of us wish to accept that some of those thoughts are thoughtful. Until...

In the days of wooden-hulled sailboats, driven by hundreds of yards of stout canvas, there was an insult given to new crewmembers who stood in the waist of the boat and pontificated on how things could be done better, things they new little about.. They were called "waisters". It was usually accompanied with a more direct epithet, typical of the sailors direct way of speaking. Even today there is little time on a sailboat for idleness. The captain, like Ahab, is "god over all of the vessel". Philosophy students are confronted with a conundrum: if you would not let a passenger on a cruise ship, who knows little of the complex web of things an experienced seaman knows, become Captain, why would you allow people to vote for a president who doesn't know how the ship of state works? How even more stupid to allow people who don't know how government works to vote for a group who knows enough about democracy to tear it down in front of us, but not enough to preserv...

I don't  mean to be alarmist because for the first time in a long time I feel confident, this far out, that we are going to see Donald Trump and all of that wretched crowd, awfully disappointed. But what should we do if i am disappointed, if we are disapointed, and he is our next president? We do not do what they want us to do, we do not stop resisting.  I met a Jewish man many years ago that told me how he, as a young man fled Poland before the Nazi's marched in. He and his family left in different directions, so that one of them would carry on the family bloodline. He was the fortunate one. It was a long and fascinating story, but what is important is that nobody gave in to the Thousand Year Reich while under occupation, The Reich that lasted maybe a dozen years. His description of resisting occupation was to use, Small Displays of Contempt. He described how the Dutch resistance would sabotage German vehicles by such actions as putting sugar in the gas tanks or plugging thei...