Lauren Boebert

 

Be a Clown

Be A Poor Silly Ass
And You'll Always Travel First-Class,
Give 'Em Quips, Give 'Em Fun,
And They'll Pay To Say You're A-1.
If You Become A Farmer, You've The Weather To Buck,
If You Become A Gambler, You'll Be Stuck With Your Luck,
But Jack You'll Never Lack If You Can Quack Like A Duck
(Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack)
Be A Clown, Be A Clown, Be A Clown.

I wonder if Lauren Boebert knows that she is a Clown?

Thank the people of voters in Colorado’s Third Congressional District for entertaining the rest of the county by electing Representative Boebert to be a clown for the rest of us, instead of electing a real representative.  She gave up her career as the owner of Shooter’s Grille.  She has shown high school dropouts everywhere that you can get on a big stage.  She sent out Christmas cards posing with assault rifles giving new meaning to Peace on Earth (or else?).  She railed against liberals who posed with  Jeffrey Epstein, forgetting that Donald Trump posed with him frequently.  She married a convicted sex offender and now if she would just pretend his male member is a rifle sticking in her WAP, maybe she could get off, as well as him.  Then maybe he wouldn’t have to expose his male member to teenage girls in bowling alleys.  She heckled the President at the State of the Union and was booed by her colleagues.  She has left Twitter for Donald Trump’s Truth App but since that platform will not have the same exposure as Twitter, I hope she has taken steps to ensure that her antics can still amuse rest of us. If I want to know what is the correct side of any issue I just have to see what she is opposing and then support the opposite.  

No one tell her that the clowns who are admired, are someone you laugh with, not laugh at. Representative Boebert and the people of Colorado’s Third Congressional District, if we can’t have someone to laugh with, thank you for giving us someone we can laugh at.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Holding Out For A hero

Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the gods?
Where's the streetwise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?

Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed
Late at night, I toss and I turn
And I dream of what I need

I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
He's gotta be strong, and he's gotta be fast
And he's gotta be fresh from the fight

I think I have found a hero and his name is Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

President Zelenskyy was the voice of Paddington Bear in the Ukrainian dubbings of the movies.  He was the winner of the Ukrainian edition of "Dancing With the Stars". He was the star of the Ukrainian sitcom “Servant of the People” in which he played the President of his country.  He won election as the real President in 2019 with over 73% of the popular vote. Since the invasion by Russia he has appeared unshaven, clad in a simple t-shirt,  and said that he is frightened.  But when given the opportunity to leave his country he said “I need ammunition, not need a ride.” No matter what happens in the days to come, he has proven himself to be hero. 

A hero is not someone who cheats at hockey, skiing, or judo to “win”.  A hero is not someone who appears shirtless on a horse, or poses with a rifle, over a  dead animal or not.  A hero is not someone who lies to his followers, but tells the truth without any concern for himself.  A bully inspires fear.  A hero inspires us to be courageous. He doesn’t have to be strong or fast.  Everyone knows the name Spartacus.  Anyone remember the name of the Roman General who killed Spartacus? May we all be heroes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2JR3FmvVAw

Peace

 

Let There be Peace on Earth 

With ev'ry step I take
Let this be my solemn vow
To take each moment and live
Each moment in peace eternally
Let there be peace on earth
And let it begin with me 

Amen. 

I have blogged before about the Prisoner’s Dilemma excerpt from Golem in The Gears. https://dbeagan.blogspot.com/2021/05/tough-but-fair-beats-always-being-nasty.html  

Imagine Sea Hag One as say Putin and Sea Hag Two as say Putie's BFF, Don "The Con", which currently is short for Confidence Man but someday, hopefully very soon, will also mean Convict. 

Let Golem One be my nominee for Man of the Decade, the greatest leader since Winston Churchill , whose phrase "I need ammunition, not a ride" will outlive us all, Volodymyr Zelensky.  Let Golem Two be say President Joe Biden. 

Those playing "Nasty" will always win games against those playing "Nice", but ONLY when they are in a two player game.  Those poor fools did not learn that if they want others to play with them, they have to play "Nice". sometimes.  Playing "Nice" is never a winning tactic, and is not a winning strategy in a two player game, but playing "Nice" sometimes, Tough But Fair, is a winning strategy in the long run when there are more than two players.  Believing that others have to play with you, or trade with you, or let you fly in their airspace, etc., is a bully's big mistake.  Screenwriter Bob Gale modeled "Back to the Future"'s bully Biff Tannen after Donald Trump's behavior in the NY tabloids back in the 1980s. If Number 45 doesn't see he that he is the joke, hopefully the rest of us will. 

Longfellow’ poem The Bells which was written during the height of the US Civil War, which Bing Crosby made into a Christmas Carol.   

Then rang the bells more loud and deep
God is not dead, nor doth He sleep
(Peace on Earth)
(Peace on Earth)
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail
With peace on Earth, good will to men 

“The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” 

Let’s do more than pray for peace.  Let us live for peace.

Wealth

 

Too Close for Comfort

Be wise, be fair, be sure, be there, behave, beware
Be wise, be smart, behave my heart
Don't upset your cart when she's so close.

Can society increase wealth in a manner that is FAIR?

If the mean and median are the same, the distribution is “normal”.  It is suggested that this is the distribution which most humans would also classify as “fair”.  If the mean wealth is $0 and the median wealth is $0 this merely means that some of the people have negative wealth (i.e. debt) while others have positive wealth.  This does not mean that there is no wealth, just that the Standard Deviation of wealth is not also $0. The variance is the square root of the Standard Deviation.  If the distribution was normal, the wealthiest 0.3% are those that have a wealth which is the Standard Deviation multiplied by three.  In other words, if the wealthiest 0.3% have a wealth of $1 million, then if the median wealth is zero and the average wealth is zero, then the Standard Deviation is $333,333 and the variance is 577.

During the COVID pandemic the phrase flatten the curve became well known. A naturally occurring statistical phenomena, such as hospital bed admittances with COVID when there are no safety precautions, would be a uniform normal distribution with a variance of 1.  Flattening the curve means increasing its variance.  A variance of 577, would be a very flat curve.  In order for it to also be a normal distribution,  it would mean that the poorest 0.3% must also have a debt of  $1 million.  Since this amount of debt is not likely, the distribution of wealth is most probably skewed to the wealthy, the median is less than the mean, and the distribution is NOT normal.

Society, all of the individuals with wealth, have an interest in increasing the median.  If the existing distribution is maintained, then an increase in wealth of the median will also increase the amount held by the wealthy.  However society can not increase the wealth unless, as they say in the US Constitution "To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries", otherwise there is no incentive for inventors to invent or for artists to create new works of art.  Additionally, society may take other measures to increase its wealth, say by funding the programs of the New Deal or the Great Society.  In order to have the funds for these programs, society must raise funds in taxes, and therein lies the rub.  Those with existing wealth are loathe to part with that wealth in the form of taxes, which are the merely the way that society must raise its revenue.

Tax codes should raise revenue by preserving a fair distribution of wealth, or at the very least the existing distribution of wealth.  The problem is that beginning with the Reagan Tax Cuts, the tax code promoted a shift of wealth from the median to the wealthiest.  Additionally, and not surprisingly, this was also accompanied by a slowing of economic growth for all groups.

If society is to increase wealth, and not merely transfer wealth from the poor to the rich, the tax code should be revised to be fair.

Tucker Carlson

Traitor

And ain't it funny
How you said you were friends?

Now it sure as hell don't look like it

You betrayed me

And I know that you'll never feel sorry

For the way I hurt, yeah

Is Tucker Carlson a Traitor?

How well does Tucker Carlson live up to the standards of "Truth, Justice, and the American Way".This is of course from the lines repeated at the beginning of every episode of the daily Adventures of Superman TV show when I was a child.

Superman was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, children of Jewish immigrants, as a retelling for modern times of the Moses story.  A baby was placed by his parents in a basket (rocket) and sent off for his safety.  His birth name for goodness sake is Kal- El.

I won't get into Tucker Carlson's shameful attitudes about Truth and Justice.  But if he is against the American Way, then he is by definition a Traitor to America.

The fact is that the American Way is to stand with the Jewish President of a country who is opposing an unJust invasion of his Country because of unTruths.  ( Ukrainians like Zelensky are Nazis?  Really? Really?)

If Tucker Carlson is against the American Way, then he is a traitor in my, and many, eyes.

I have written to YouTube TV, my streaming service, because while I can boycott the products of companies who advertise on Tucker Carlson's show, I know that my YouTube TV subscription dollars go to keeping this filth on the air.  While I am delighted that YouTube TV carries ESPN, Nickelodeon, and TMC, I regret that my subscription is supporting Tucker Carlson on Fox News.

Tucker Carlson is against the American Way, which makes him a traitor to Americans like me.

Sanctions

Dazed and Confused

You hurt and abuse,
Tellin' all of your lies
Run 'round, sweet baby, lord, how they hypnotize
Sweet little baby, I don't know where you been
Gonna love you, baby, here I come again

So who is confused about strategy and tactics?

Sanctions have been proposed by President Biden as a strategy for dealing with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  Some in the GOP have complained that sanctions are weak and ineffective.  Those individuals  are confusing strategy with tactics.  Are sanctions an effective tactic? No, but they were never claimed to be.

Those individuals opposing sanctions as ineffective must also be fans of Pyrrhic victories.  In case you have forgotten, a Pyrrhic victory is one where the victory, and the tactics used to achieve that victory, work against a winning strategy.  E.g. you won the battle, but lost the war.  They might make the tacticians who achieved that victory proud of themselves.  But a mid-season sports victory that came at the cost of injuring the team's star player almost always guarantees a losing season.  A gambler who won $100,000 in a game, but has lost $400,000 over the last year is still a loser.  The winner of an auction who paid more than the asset is worth will probably be bankrupt in the long run.  Or particularly germane to current events… the French Invasion of Russia in 1812 and the taking of Moscow.  It should be particularly fitting to listen to Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture today, and everyday, until the Russian invasion of the Ukraine becomes the latest example of a Pyrrhic victory.  Kind of makes you want to listen again on Election day, and when the Truth Social app crashes and burns as well!  I’d rather be weak than dazed and confused!

Inflation IV

 

Subterranean Homesick Blues

Look out kid, don't matter what you did
Walk on your tiptoes, don’t tie no bows
Better stay away from those that carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose, watch the plainclothes
You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

But you do need to know that there IS a difference between
short term weather
and
long term climate.

If there is a fixed amount of money, and money is the medium of exchange in trade, then all trading must stop if one group of players has all of the money.  On the other hand, if society wishes trade to continue, then it must increase the supply of money to allow trade. 

The first situation describes when the supply of money is based on a fixed asset, e.g. gold or crypto currency ( e.g. Bitcoins will be eventually limited to 21 million).  When money is based on a fixed asset, it is said to be a commodity currency, such as the gold standard.  The second situation describes a fiat currency, where society creates money to accommodate trade. The first is the Chicago School, the second is  Keynesian. 

The United States Dollar was on the gold standard until 1933, when private ownership of gold was made illegal.  However gold still was the international trading currency.  After Bretton Woods, the United States Dollar became the international trading currency backed by gold.  Predictably, international players accumulated more and more dollars, and potentially gold, until the Nixon Shock of 1971.  This was followed by an economic readjustment, as the supply and demand curves had to readjust to this new reality.  Since that time, while long term inflation has been persistent, short term corrections between the supply and demand curves have been minimal.

Calls to go to a commodity currency, where that is backed by gold, or by crypto currency, appears to risk subjecting the economy to major corrections in the supply and demand curves.  Overall, the markets have been generally stable after they recovered from the Nixon Shock. But long term inflation has increased because the  international trading currency was a domestic fiat currency which was not growing to account for international trade ( the Triffin Dilemma) .

The year to year increase in the 2022 CPI was 4.4%.  The December 2020 to December 2021 increase was 7%, but 4.4% is based on the average of monthly CPI weighted by the days in each month.  The 7% increase is only relative to the lower demand in December 2020.  Given that the long term inflation has been suggested to be 4%, this change in short term inflation might not be cause for alarm. The increase in CPI seemed to begin in March of 2020, which is also the start of the COVID shutdown. Making policy decisions based on a comparison of today with COVID conditions would appear to be unwise.  It is like declaring that a drought is over based on a comparison of today’s rainfall with that during of the worst of the  drought.  The short term change is nice to know, but it is the change over the long term that is important.