There are lots of metrics for determining whether a worker is performing adequately. HR experts all over the country can share them. If you have ever been responsible for managing personnel (I have–it was the very least favorite part of my job), you know how frustrating it can be when an employee is goofing off, failing to meet timelines or generally just not doing the job.
Voters “hired” Donald Trump to fill the position of Chief Executive. Forget the corruption, the ignorance and the evident mental illness–what would a basic job evaluation by a dispassionate, politically-neutral observer look like? A few “data points” are instructive.
CNBC looked at a very basic element of the job: assembling a team of middle-and-upper managers.
On his 500th day in office, President Donald Trump tweeted a list of accomplishments that he said “many believe” is longer than any other president.
One list that remains longer than most of his recent predecessors is the number of White House positions that remain unfilled.
After more than 16 months in office, the Trump administration has yet to fill hundreds of key jobs that require Senate confirmation. The delays are longer than for any of the last six administrations.
The most worrisome of those empty positions are at the United States State Department. More than 40 top jobs remain vacant, and dozens of ambassadors who’d been appointed by Obama and fired by Trump on Inauguration Day have yet to be replaced. Given the precipitous drop in the regard in which other countries hold the United States, and the international issues we face, it would be helpful to have people working on such matters.
Meanwhile, the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Energy and Interior, the Social Security Administration, the U.S. Postal Service and the CIA still have no Inspectors General. Given the almost-daily revelations of corruption in the Trump Administration, I tend to think this lack of oversight is intentional.
Then there’s this recent report from Raw Story:
An investigation by Politico has found that President Donald Trump’s “executive time” — which is used by the White House as a euphemism for the time he spends watching cable news — absolutely dwarfs the time allotted to doing official work.
Specifically, Politico reports that last Tuesday, “the president was slated for more than nine hours of ‘Executive Time,’ a euphemism for the unstructured time Trump spends tweeting, phoning friends and watching television.” The publication then notes that “official meetings, policy briefings and public appearances — traditionally the daily work of being president — consumed just over three hours of his day.”
Now, this bit of information should probably be considered good news rather than dereliction of duty; God knows how much more harm he’d do if he actually worked at it. That said, it’s one more indication–as if we needed further evidence–that Trump has no interest in actually governing.
It’s hard to disagree with Michael Cohen, who produces a newsletter called Born in the USA, when he sums up what Trump’s real interests are.
“The thing that Trump seems to enjoy most about being president is going to campaign rallies and looking out into a sea of adoring white faces, who applaud him, laugh at his jokes, and feed his limitless need for validation and approval. So making these people happy is really about making Trump happy.”
Making Trump happy is the last thing I want to do.
No wonder his brain is fried
My brother wondered out loud last week that he’d like to know what 45 is “on”. Meaning, what drugs is that guy taking? We all know he won’t drink alcohol (can you imagine if he did?) Brother said there were rumors of gonorrhea medication or syphillis and I mentioned that there is a hair growth drug that can cause dementia side effects after long term use. I can’t remember what’s it’s called though. His mumbling speech and sniffling makes us both wonder. His brain is fried because of the diet of fast food and lack of nutrients or exercise. Whatever the cause, 45 had a terrible weekend here in Europe and I’m glad that he’s gone. I wish someone in the GOP would do their damn job.
I believe our big problem is not giving Donald Trump his PREMATURE HISTORICAL CREDIT:
To do this, I believe every full-blooded American should be required to study the comparable success of NERO: Perhaps the most infamous of Rome’s emperors, Nero Claudius Caesar (37-68 A.D.) ruled Rome from 54 A.D. until his death by suicide 14 years later. He is best known for his debaucheries, political murders, persecution of Christians and a passion for music that led to the probably apocryphal rumor that Nero “fiddled” while Rome burned during the great fire of 64 A.D.
I’m serious.
Why not enjoy ourselves while the SHIP OF STATE is sinking? Don’t we remember the scene from the movie “Titanic” where it depicted the ship’s orchestra still playing just before she went under?
Our non-voting public is responsible for this debacle. We can’t say we didn’t know who and what he was in 2016. We can say that too few of us cared enough to see to it that this never happened.
Once again, thank you Marv,
While I’d definitely remember that film I can think, unfortunately, of Lee Greenwood singing “God Bless the USA” while we’re sinking instead of the ships orchestra. I am more to do something different – quoting the father of the United States Navy, Captain John Paul Jones, and what he said to the captain of HMS Serapis even when his own ship, the Bon Homme Richard, was slowly sinking into the North Sea due to battle damage during the epic clash of Flamborough Head – “I have not yet begun to fight”.
We cannot under any circumstances give in to his train wreck some of us of inflicted upon this country and the rest of the world. Roman Emperor Nero is a fine comparison with our current Chief Executive with perhaps his daily and inane tweets along with his boorish behavior being letter day substitutes for Nero’s daily torturing of Christians.
I must admit that he tortures my brain every day through what he says, tweets and does. I do historical research for a living and for a chunk of each day I sort of hide out in the past which gives me a little bit of aid and comfort although while doing so I do I wonder what is happening; what is the latest stupid or dangerous thing this man has done while I have been elsewhere.
We are in deep trouble as both a nation and as a people. Given the hideous spectacle this weekend in France where a bad hair day due to rain prevented the President of United States from participating in ceremonies to honor our war dead from The Great War this national embarrassment cannot be allowed to go on much longer. I hope and pray that the Mueller investigation gives him a broadside that sends him reeling right out the front door of the White House.
Marv; exactly HOW do we enjoy ourselves as the SHIP OF STATE is sinking? Do we rearrange the deck chairs to sit comfortably to listen to the orchestra? Those suffering continue to suffer during the sinking; those who are dying continue to die during the sinking, those who are hungry continue to be unfed during the sinking. And those in Puerto Rico and fleeing the California wildfires continue to suffer during the sinking as Trump punched more holes in the hull of OUR sinking ship while in Paris over the past weekend. He ignored our military veterans dead and alive while staying in out of the rain which all Californians are hoping and praying for. Those making funeral arrangements for victims of mass and local shootings and now the fire victims, or are still grieving the deaths or still living in fear due to the bomb scares (everyone who handled those pieces of mail was also in danger) have no time and no reason to enjoy the sinking. Just as on the Titanic; we currently do not have enough lifeboats to save all of us; the current administration is picking and choosing those to be saved. They are the only ones who can afford to sit back and enjoy the sinking of the SHIP OF STATE…their bank accounts will survive along with them.
Or do we spend the time enjoying reading the history of Nero as our sitting Congress “fiddles” around looking busy and doing nothing of value? Contacting sitting members of Senate and Congress and at state levels as well as those who will be incoming, need to know our continuing demands for a return to democracy, reinstating civil and human rights, the Constitution and Rule of Law…for ALL. Will the election’s upcoming ousting of some of the goof-offs be an awakening to those who spoke against Trump but vote for him? NOW is not the time to sit back and enjoy…we have NOTHING to enjoy yet and no assurance we will have anything in the near future.
I continue to receive requests for donations; some using fear tactics due to seeing how well that is working for Trump.
I can only imagine the “disregard” for Trump among the officer corp of the military. If Trump and Bannon think the military will support him when he defies impeachment, he is mistaken. He is the antithesis of DUTY, HONOR, COUNTRY.
Describing himself as a patriot, Macron said: “Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. In saying ‘our interests first, whatever happens to the others,’ you erase the most precious thing a nation can have, that which makes it live, that which causes it to be great and that which is most important: its moral values.
“Old demons are resurfacing. History sometimes threatens to take its tragic course again and compromise our hope of peace. Let us vow to prioritize peace over everything.”
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It is highly unlikely most American politicians would have the courage to say the words Macron did.
It makes sense that President Agent Orange would be a Nationalist, since Nationalism is ego centered. One thing we know about President Agent Orange is he is ego centered to the maximum.
Peggy,
“We can say that too few of us cared enough to see to it that this never happened.”
How could it be otherwise? We lost an understanding of the importance of PATRIOTISM after our debacle in Viet Nam. Instead of attacking our leadership, way too many American’s took the easy way out and humiliated those who fought in the war. That’s not even mentioning those who fled to Canada to avoid the draft.
So ultimately, we end up with a trio of draft dodger’s leading us: Clinton, Bush, & Trump. Let’s be honest. After all this, what should we expect from Americans?
We all should apply. Get our feet in there to make a difference.
Marv, wow what a comment. Great thought provoking on draft dodgers now as leaders who are honorable.
Netflix has a Johnny Cash documentary on his opposing Nixon’s policies and how we can view it.
Macron also delivered similar words to Congress which was glossed over by our media who now worships Jim Acosta at CNN for getting banned by the POTUS. Kellyanne Conway defended the “doctored video” by claiming, “It wasn’t doctored, it was sped up.”.
Trump is a dimwit who has to surround himself with even more dimwitted individuals. I’ve noticed Sarah Palin tweeting more often lately in defense of Trump’s circus, so I suspect an announcement soon.
There’s enough material to keep our fake media going for weeks at a time. This also has me wondering what they aren’t covering in the process. Is this just a great distraction from more important subjects?
This is the USA, so of course, we are being distracted by a carnival.
Rome is burning while we watch the carnival on the tele.
Let me ask, did anybody see Nancy Pelosi on the campaign trail working to get non-corporate owned candidates elected to Congress?
I sure didn’t…in fact, anybody with a functioning brain wouldn’t invite her. Look what happened to Mr. Gillum in Florida when he embraced DWS and Hillary. It was the kiss of death.
There is also very fascinating journalism coming out of Turkey right now as well regarding the Khashoggi murder. Was MBS being set up and by whom?
Meanwhile, on a tele near you, we have the chief distractor getting all excited when he greets Putin. And, where in the hell is that caravan???
It so happens that I am just now finishing a book on Roman history but am beyond the Nero era and nearing that of Constantine and the final sacking of Rome in 476 A.D. I am sensitive to the veiled complaint of JoAnn today in response to Professor Kennedy’s blog in which she (JoAnn) suggests that reading Roman history as a pastime when we could be using our time to battle Trump is not time well spent, and such criticism has merit inasmuch as Roman history is over and we are in the process of making ours.
However, we can walk and chew gum at the same time, and with the parallels in history we share with the Romans that led to their final sacking, I’m not sure that reading Roman history isn’t a contemporary exposure to modern history since we have much to learn in their odyssey from a republic to a dictatorship, a trip we may be traversing today with a wannabe Caesar at the helm. I have always held that history is linear but a strong case can be made today that it could repeat itself even though unfolding in a different age and technological environment from that of the grossly misnamed Pax Romano.
JoAnn’s mild admonishment may prove to have legs. Thus we already know Roman history but cannot know American history over the coming years, so there is an argument that we deal with a history in the making over a history in the past no one can change. She has a point; Julius Caesar was stabbed to death and I can’t change that historical reality, but I can use my time and efforts to thwart Trump’s headlong and oblivious attempt to stab our democracy to its death since, as I often write, democracy is our most precious asset help in common, and one of the last few things left worth dying for.
It also might be noted that Trump’s evisceration of the government includes understaffing of the VA where veteran cash benefits haven’t been sent out for over a month.
Meanwhile, the know-it-all journalist on this blog continues to berate other, real journalists and some elected officials who are actually trying to do something for the people of this country. What a guy! Can you imagine what the editorials are like?
The record voter turnout this election humbled me and my cynicism this time. My hope, of course, is that there is enough energy to carry us to 2020 when we can vote out the rest of the Republican dumbshow around the country and the Senate. The terrible consequences of NOT defeating and repudiating Republicanism still exist.
I, like many of you, have my fingers crossed that Mueller will soon produce his next batch of indictments that will make Trump’s head explode. Problem solved. Pence will be ground up into dust if he has the stupidity to take up residence in the Oval Office.
Todd, I read a sarcastic article some where on the Internet that the film of Jim Acosta and his struggle with a White House intern/employee is being reviewed as intensely as the Zapruder Film: slowing it up, stop action, etc. Perhaps the NFL could be contacted to conduct a review of the incident/play. The we would here those chilling words: “After further Review, blah, blah, blah”.
As you say it is a carnival of distraction. The Central American Scare-A-Van has disappeared from the “News” Coverage.
There is a chilling and immensely sad video of Susan Orfanos after her 27-year-old son Telemachus was killed in the mass shooting Wednesday night in Thousand Oaks, California that left more than a dozen dead and many more wounded. “I don’t want prayers. I don’t want thoughts. I want gun control.” “My son was in Las Vegas with a lot of his friends and he came home,” Orfanos said in an interview with ABC7. “He didn’t come home last night.”
“I have two words: gun control,” Orfanos added in an interview with BuzzFeed on Thursday. “Now, now, now, now. No more NRA. No more money. Gun control now.”https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/11/09/california-shooting-victims-mother-issues-powerful-demand-action-i-dont-want-prayers
Will the Corporate News Media give Susan Orfanos as much publicity as Jim Acosta???
Gerald,
I agree that much of history is linear. But, what has happened to America and is still happening at the deepest level is not linear, it is NON-LINEAR.
As I have suggested a few times before, read “The Advent of Netwar” by John Arquilla and David Ronfeldt [prepared for the Secretary of Defense] (RAND, Santa Monica, CA, 1996):
“This briefing elucidates a concept—“netwar”—that we mentioned in an article on “cyberwar.” Whereas the latter term refers primarily to information-based military operations designed to disrupt an adversary, netwar relates to lower-intesity conflict at the SOCIETAL END of the spectrum. In our view netwar, [webwar] is likely to be the more prevalent and challenging form of conflict in the emerging information age and merits careful and sustained study” p.vii
“An archetypal actor consists of a web (or network) of dispersed, interconnected “nodes” (or activity centers)—this is its key defining characteristic. It may resemble the bounded “all channel type of network pictured above. These nodes may be individuals, groups, formal or informal organizations, or parts of groups or organizations. The nodes may be large or small in size, tightly or loosely coupled, and inclusive or exclusive in membership. They may be segmentary or specialized; that is, they may look quite alike and engage in similar activities, or they may undertake a division of labor based on specialization. The boundaries of the network may be sharply defined or blurred in relation to the outside environment.” p. 9
Consequently, a successful NODAL ATTACK can cause a CASCADING effect throughout the web.
In this regard, a few days ago, I also suggested “The Nazis’ March To Chaos: The Hitler Era Through the Lenses of Chaos-Complexity Theory” by Roger Beaumont.
Donald Trump now commands the WEB. He hijacked it. As Arquilla and Ronfeldt have earlier suggested, the only way you can stop someone like Trump is by SWARMING the MAJOR NODE in the SUB-SURFACE WEB that has been weaved for over 50 years. The secret of success lies in the successful TRACKING from the beginning of the creation of the web. It’s difficult because it is masked with Christianity. However, that’s the only way the web can be ultimately TREATED with an antidote of TRUTH.
We can come up with a list of President Agent Orange’s and Pastor Pence’s outrageous lies, hyperbola, incompetence, and self serving actions. These items are good to note.
The problem I have with this everyday Trump Bashing Party is, where do you want to go?? What are the solutions/goals for next election??? Is the Corporate Democratic Party just going to carry on the Trump Bashing for the next two years, or will it offer programs and a platforms that Americans could benefit from and embrace.
I can think of Universal-Single Payer Expanded – Enhanced Medicare for All, protection of Social Security in the form of proper funding, closing tax loop holes, etc. There are other goals that could be added, in other words a Positive Progressive Message of what we stand for!!
I have to agree with M. Languor. The Democratic Party must build a clear and concise platform that citizens can understand and rally around. The list would be rather easy to assemble. The rationale and explanation will need to be cogent, compelling and urgent. I have been puzzled that this has not been a priority for years now. Bernie had the right idea regarding defining and staying on message whether or not one totally agreed with his priorities. If Democrats want to earn wins at the polls, the first step should be a strong and clear consensus about its aspirations for the betterment of our nation and world and how to get them done.
We have two political operations going on in America, one involving PARTISAN POLITICS and the other a WEBWAR involving the release of a lethal virus of hatred from a “Black Swan” platform, the result of which we’re now experiencing mass killings, at the present time, almost on a weekly basis.
It’s impossible to be actively involved in both. The reason why: the first requires the ability to fight with only one eye open, whereas the second requires both eyes being opened.
Unfortunately, this phenomenon, aptly, applies to this blog.
Only a suggestion, maybe Todd should close one of his eyes.
I’ve recommended it before, but “The Country of the Blind” by H. G. Wells is available, at no charge, on Amazon Kindle TODAY.
Adding to the theme that Monotonous Languor began; nobody in the Whitehouse is any different than they ever were and virtually everyone, supporters and realists both, has and had a good handle on who that is. They haven’t changed in any way. Only the fact that they are in the Whitehouse is problematic and that’s due to Putin for sure but Putin’s plot only became possible because of the American culture that entertainment media has created over the last several decades. I assume that the people who were so effected are lost forever as useful participants in our democracy. There is no countervening cultural force as strong as the one that created them. The Republican ex-Party took advantage of them and is now forever defined by them. They’re beyond redemption too.
What we know now is that they are too minority to represent real Federal power but will probably define a few states for a few decades more. Unfortunately Indiana may be one. Sorry Hoosiers.
Stuff will happen in the next two years which is beyond our imagination at this time then we’ll move on so what the DNC does with that time is critical but one of the problems we here can help them with is unification of progressive liberals as a completely separate problem from the clean up in DC of the mess we inherited.
Re-creation of the “United” States is our unique challenge with much emphasis of the unification of liberal progressives with expansion of who we are to encompass more political diversity than we can claim presently.
It’s the next necessary step.
“The problem I have with this everyday Trump Bashing Party is, where do you want to go??”
Monotonous; the only problem I have with your problem is, how, when and where do we stop the everyday Trump Bashing Party when every day they come up with a new reason, action, accusation or issue to be bashed? We must admit it is almost awe-inspiring that they have so many new tricks in their bag of tricks to come up with. Of course most of the goof offs I worked with or for in city government did have more time on their hands to create new problems than I had due to my workload…often their work I had been given because they couldn’t or wouldn’t do their job. I once asked a friend who was a supervisor with the USPS why their work was handed off to others rather than being forced to do it themselves. He, who had a degree in business management, told me they were trained to just get the work done by whoever they knew would do it.
A number of us on this blog have asked from time to time who is doing any work while the top goof offs are goofing off…or golfing or rallying…or have asked what work is not getting done. We will never know the answer to those questions until the entire Trump/Pence administration and the current goof off Congress is gone; then and only then will whoever replaces them find the mess they leave behind. We may begin to get some of those answers from the House after January 1st.
Yes. What shall we do? Yes, health care and immigration reform are necessary. There are plenty of examples around the world to create the scaffolding for our own universal health care that will be the best in the world. The immigration reform ideas have already been codified by a Senate bill that the shit-for-brains Senator McConnell wouldn’t bring to the floor for a vote. That would be the third leg to the short-term stool: Vote out Republicans everywhere beginning with McConnell.
Amending the Constitution to remove the Electoral College is another good, high-priority task that many have written about on this and all other blogs. A Democratic Congress and Democratic state legislatures in the 2/3 majority needed would solve that problem too. After all between George W. Bush and Donald Trump, it should be clear to all that the EC has outlived its usefulness and indeed is causing our presidential election outcomes to produce a clown show.
An infrastructure bill is serious business, enough so that the idiotic tax cut for the corporations and the rich must be overturned to pay for it all. Nothing will reduce the deficit faster than a highly employed workforce earning living wages and consuming like crazy. Reducing our military footprint by getting the hell out of Afghanistan (Let Pakistan live with what it has created there.) will save lives and money. Meanwhile, our corporate cost accountants can shift their focus from greedily buying back their own stock for monopolistic purposes to hammering out deals with whatever ends up passing for an Afghan government for harvesting their mineral resources before the Chinese and Russians do that first. Maybe those mercenaries being paid 6-figure salaries by Blackwater type organizations would be better served protecting the businesses springing up in that country. Hell, they’re already there in large numbers.
Inclusive to the above suggestions, it’s time we also took the bit in our teeth to start paying for education. That means not just teacher salaries, but debt forgiveness and free tertiary education through bachelor’s degrees. As it is, since Reagan cut funding for higher education to the states, universities charge higher than necessary fees because the elites demand it: “Why, I spend $25,000 per year for my kid to go to XYZ College. Aren’t we great?”
Generally speaking the top 10% want to depress wages and salaries for those who make them rich, because they think they’re competing for a limited amount of dollars. Yes, inflation, that red-headed cousin of capitalism, must be controlled, but when more people are earning enough money to increase their consumer spending, most things will take care of themselves. Oh, and yes, the Wall Street and banking regulations that Bush and Trump have overturned must be put back in place.
How’s all this for a nice agenda of forward working actions for the next two years…and beyond.
Marv,
If Todd closed one eye, he’d be totally blind.
Vernon, good one.
The one thing that’s clear is that the country will begin its metamorphosis to the future from where we are in 2020 which will be further behind the rest of the world and significantly damaged and with a government still somewhat Constitutional so some of the people who will contribute are those who can work within the current political structure.
What will be revolutionary then is a vision of progress based on where the world by necessity must go, not where we wish that it could. That’s less dreaming than knowledge based and practical. That will be defined more by global warming and energy re-sourcing than anything and based on science and engineering.
The other reality is that we will be in recession at least and that will require more of what Obama had to deal with and that is a partnership between government and global business to dig our way out of the hole to avoid collapse.
Finally that collapse will include the cost implosion of health care which will require seeing it as an investment for all not a privilege of wealth. Again practicality and pragmatism will have to rein supreme.
Vernon; remove the Electoral College or simply REQUIRE all states to allow their members of the Electoral College to vote their choice…NOT the selection by the party of the states? HOW did that law ever get passed? A silly question I suppose when considering the money party is the party choice in the red states requiring their party vote by all members. Did I say that right?
The Electoral College is a sticky situation being part of the Constitution just as impeachment requirements are not only sticky but impossible at this time. There is also that Catch 22 situation regarding impeachment (as if that were possible these days) in that Trump could be removed from office, undergo some brief psychological counseling, be declared “cured” and reinstated in the Oval Office…in either this, his first term or his second term after 2020. End the Goldwater Rule and watch psychiatrists clamber all over one another to declare Trump, to borrow a Stephen King quote, “crazy as a shit house rat”.
Donald Trump taints everyone who becomes associated with him. He doesn’t seek advice from anyone who might disagree with him. He refuses to read briefing papers longer than a page or two. He doesn’t listen to those who have experience and expertise. He knee jerks to matters large and small, sends his cabinet and staff in one direction then pulls the rug from under them later.
I used to think the President just didn’t want to knuckle down to do the hard work of finding and vetting qualified people. (He apparently doesn’t vet much of anyone.) But it’s become increasingly apparent that qualified, honorable people don’t want to work for him.
Vernon,
Marv, If Todd closed one eye, he’d be totally blind. I totally disagree.
At the spot we’re now in, no one is going to accomplish anything worthwhile. It’s becoming a total impasse. It’s a massive systems problem. Involving a total social/political breakdown, with the economy soon to join in. Its been coming for many, many, years and it is now upon us, gaining full momentum.
Vernon; isn’t requiring a person to vote for a specific candidate a violation of their voting rights? Doesn’t state’s rights section of the Constitution require that state laws do not go against Constitutional protection?
I agree Marv. It just another reality of the hand 2016 dealt us and the one we have to play. We never had any choice that 2018 would be a watershed year but only an opportunity to slow the damage from 2016.
The serious problem we’re now facing was presented many years ago, especially, in “Escape from Freedom” by Erich Fromm (Henry Holt and Company, New York, 194l). Fromm asks for a troubling answer, why do people choose authoritarianism over freedom? Or more specifically, what is the psychological appeal of fascism?
Pete,
I agree Marv. It just another reality of the hand 2016 dealt us and the one we have to play.”
Pete, the ultimate answer will be: Do we have the TRUMP CARD?
I think we should not be diverted by Trumps every day lies and incompetencies but focus on the political, moral and cultural crisis we are in.
Pete,
I’m sure you would know, as a former senior executive at Eastman Kodak, that the TRUMP CARD should be presented pictorially and not by verbal rhetoric, so that any onlookers of the “card game” might better understand the move.
Sheila – I totally agree with you — if Trump thought he was elected to do a job. Trump has been in a family business his whole life and has never had a boss. He doesn’t see himself as being elected to to a job, rather he sees that the United States government has been given to him as a subsidiary of the Trump family businesses. Therefore, his job is to do whatever he likes, mostly finding ways to boast and stroke his own ego.
JoAnn – the National Popular Vote has proposed that individual states mandate their Electors to vote for the person who won the national popular vote. This is easy to do without coercion. Currently in many states (if not most) each political party chooses a slate of Electors (I believe that John Koza, one of the founders of National Popular Vote, once served as one). The state then selects that slate of partisans who won that state’s vote. The states only have to change the law to send the slate of partisans whose candidate won the national vote. This law has been proposed in every state and passed in several of them. It goes into effect when the number of states that have passes the law reaches the level of 270 electoral votes, a majority.
Peggy – while I blame non-voters, I also blame the press. The press constantly uses the term “the left”, which since at least the 1950s has equated to communist, while calling the other side “conservative” when in reality, they have been more and more reactionary since Reagan, wanting to roll back the social safety net, equal rights, civil rights, consumer protections — and evidently the 14th Amendment. They could not get themselves to call a lie a lie and feel this compulsions to have “equality of facts” (one climate denier and one climate scientist – that’s equal). They still often talk about the need to tame the rhetoric “on both sides”.
An interesting note about the press, history and fiction. I recently re-watched an old Dr. Who episode, “The Long Game” from 2005. The plot involved all news being controlled from a single satellite feed that subtly manipulated it — including riling up the populous against a non-existent border invasion from a neighboring country – reality imitating art.
I opened my email this morning and was going to write my Seminary just to make sure I was in touch, and behold! A letter of ‘hello’ from them! Next up: This blog article. I was opining to my wife earlier this morning and thinking on how we could bring a case against the trump administration charging – Dereliction of Duty? I mean what can ya say – seems minds are connecting en masse this morning and realizing – we are still Americans at the core and we recognize a FAKE! And it is time the fakes – left.