Friday, July 12, 2024

Good Intentions

 

Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood

Baby, can you understand me now?
Sometimes I get a little mad
Don't you know, no one alive can always be an angel
When things go wrong, I seem to go bad
 I'm just a soul whose intentions are good
Oh Lord, please don't let me be misunderstood 

The problem is that the road to hell is paved with good intentions! 

If you could change one historical event in your lifetime, what would it be? Mine would be Gerald Ford’s pardoning of Richard Nixon. Do I believe that the pardon was done with the best of intentions.  It was Gerald Ford after all, and I personally believe that he had ONLY good intentions. The spectacle of a criminal trial would be devastating to everyone in the  United States. Take the fascination with the  OJ Simpson trial and then go nuclear. That is just the general public who are not invested in the outcome of the trial. The fight put up by Richard Nixon and his allies would have also been epic, costly, and damaging. A consequence of the pardon is that the spectacle and fight did not take place. However it also meant that crimes committed by a President while in power were never tried and possibly punished. If there was no pardon of Richard Nixon, then maybe there would have been no Ronald Reagan presidency, no George Bush presidency, no Donald Trump presidency, and no partisan Supreme Court to grant an opinion of presidential immunity to Donald Trump. It might have been with good intentions at the time, but 50 years later, boy was it misunderstood.

Thursday, July 11, 2024

Should Joe Biden Drop Out?

Shut Up and Dance

"Oh, don't you dare look back
Just keep your eyes on me.”
I said, "You're holding back."
She said, "Shut up and dance with me!"
This woman is my destiny
She said, "Ooh-ooh-hoo
Shut up and dance with me."

Should Joe Biden run in 2024?

No. But if Joe Biden had run in 2016, and maybe we wouldn’t have Donald Trump in 2016 and Joe would not be running in 2024 because he would have completed two terms anyway.

And while we are at it , Obama should not have run in 2008 except George  Bush did such a bad job somebody had to clean up. George Bush should not have won in 2000 and the SCOTUS should not have interfered, then Gore would have been president and maybe no recession in 2008 and no 9/11. And while we are at it, if Hinkley had better aim, then maybe George W Bush might have stopped the voodoo Reaganomics Tax Cuts and maybe Iran-Contra would not have happened. Are we going to play the “what if “ game some more? How far back are we playing? Shut up and dance with who brung you. Don’t look around for a better partner. 

Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Forrest Gump

 

Woodstock

I'm going on down to Yasgur’s farm
I'm gonna join in a rock and roll band
I'm going to camp out on the land
I'm gonna try and get my soul free

Joni Mitchell did not go to Yasgur’s farm, and neither did I

Joni Michell wrote the definitive song about Woodstock. She was supposed to perform at Woodstock but the closest she got to Woodstock was flying over the festival. Her staff would not let her land or perform due to the crowd. I had a similar reason for not going.

I was at the Newport Jazz festival in July of 1969, just weeks before Woodstock. Because of Lee Giguere, we even had backstage passes ( Lee’s father worked for Pepsi, and Pepsi supplied the backstage areas). The Newport Jazz festival program that year included Jazz and Rock. As part of the program on Friday evening I saw Blind Faith ( newly formed with Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood), Ten Year’s After, Jeff Beck, Jethro Tull, Blood Sweat and Tears, etc. The show on the next evening was going to be headlined by Led Zepplin and James Brown. The problem was that the crowd surged through the fence during our show, our show was stopped, it was announced at the time that all subsequent shows were cancelled.  I left and never returned.  (Ultimately, the shows were NOT canceled). But because of the fact it was temporarily cancelled, I decided that Woodstock would have similar problems as well, so why go to Yasgur’s farm. Boy was I wrong. It was NOT cancelled! My tickets might never have been collected, but the music played on.  Forrest Gump was not the only one who lived through historical events without even realizing it.

Tuesday, July 9, 2024

Old Friends

 

Once Upon at Time

Once upon a time, the world was sweeter than we knew Everything was ours; how happy we were then But, somehow, once upon a time never comes again

But once upon a time it  happened, even if it never comes again.

In 1969 the four Merit Scholarship Semi-Finalists were announced for Rhode Island.  Not to make it all about me, but they included:

·        James Joyce, my best friend in grade school and a member of my Cub Scout Den who lived around the corer from me;

·        Barbara  Casey who sat next to me in 7th grade and on whom I had an unrequited, and never expressed, crush;

·        Lee Giguere, my best friend in high school; and

·        myself. 

At the time I blamed Lee for myself not getting into MIT, which was my second choice for college.  Lee got in to MIT but was miserable there, took every Liberal Arts elective that he could, and graduated with a Bachelor Of Science in Journalism. My first choice for college was the US Naval Academy, but I failed the physical test because of my eyesight.  I had to settle for my “safe” school, Brown University.

The last time I saw Jimmy was in high school. The last time I saw Barbara was in 1971 when she was also taking the Federal Civil Service exam for a summer job. The last time I saw Lee was at his wedding after graduation from MIT.  But once upon a time I was Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon from all of them.

Monday, July 8, 2024

Debates II

Skyfall

Let the sky fall When it crumbles We will stand tall Face it all together

Is the sky falling?

Chicken Little (known as Henny Penny on the European side of the pond), is a cautionary folk tale about the dangers of making assumptions, and how those assumptions can be used to your detriment by bad actors, such as Foxy Loxy.  Did President Biden display age related senility during his debate with Donald Trump, or did DJT as Foxy Loxy want you to mistake confusion for senility.

For all the prominent Democrats and pundits calling for Joe Biden’s ouster, please read Chicken Little, and please don’t believe that the sky is falling.  Bad things that will happen if you do, unless we face it all together.

Sunday, July 7, 2024

A Two-party Platform?

 

Call Me Mister In-Between

Well, I'm too old for girls and I'm too young for women
I've looked all around and my hopes are a-dimmin'
I feel like a fish not allowed any swimmin'
And it makes a fella mean
To feel he's a part of the Lost Generation
I feel like a choo-choo that can't find the station
I work like a dog with no recreation
They call me Mr. In-Between

Often being In-Between is a GOOD thing.

An election of a candidate to represent you in the group is about the candidate’s  policies AND character. By character, it is meant whether that candidate actually endorses those policies, rather than only pretending to endorse those policies in order to win the election. The fact that there are three outcomes to a contest while there are only two major parties, means that rank choice voting can NOT be used to indicate which of the candidates is your first, second and third choice. A voter may be faced with voting against a candidate rather than voting for a candidate. This will not advance a candidate whose policies are preferred by the voter, just that the charcater of the other candidate is so appalling that you will vote against your policies so as  to not vote for the other candidate.

When the major parties had two wings, this was not necessarily a problem. The winner of the party nomination probably had enough character that you could vote for his polices. Thus Main Street and Wall Street Republicans could exist in the same party. But if a major party will actively oppose having two factions and requires that all members think the same, then that party may nominate a candidate whose character is appalling to what would  have been those former members and voters, because they do not believe that their former party’s candidates character is such to advance their policies.

That there are two major parties is a consequences of Duverger’s Law. This says that in an election that is decided by dominance, i.e. >50% or even plurality and less than 50%, voters and candidates will eventually gravitate to two political parties. This can be changed if the two major parties each advance two candidates for election. Then there will be at a minimum four characters on each ballot. Then rank choice voting could be used even in a two-party system. Voters could then vote for a candidate and not against a candidate. Rank choice voting when there are only three candidates ensures that the winner will be acceptable to almost 67% of the voters. And 67% is a lot higher than 50%.

It is proposed that at each nominating convention of the major parties, there would be a nomination of a primary candidate and a secondary candidate. In the case of president, a slate of president and vice president. In states where elections are by rank choice voting, ( e.g. Alaska) both candidates would be on the ballot. In elections where rank choice voting is NOT used, then only the primary candidate shall be placed in the ballot.

As an example, if 10 people are asked to rank their three favorite restaurants and everyone picks a different first place restaurant and everyone picks a different third place restaurant, but everyone pick the same second place restaurant, then everyone’s second place restaurant IS the consensus favorite restaurant of the group. It was no individual's first choice, but it is everyone’s second choice restaurant, and thus probably the most acceptable restaurant to everyone of those 10 people in the group.

Saturday, July 6, 2024

Character

 

The Impossible Dream

And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable
The unreachable
The unreachable star 

What I heard last night 

The last question that was asked during last night’s interview on ABC with President Biden, was how would he feel if Donald Trump wins the election in 2024? As a result of President Biden’s response, I heard the song lyric above playing in my head. The first ABC pundit responding to the interview said that he was deeply troubled by his response and that an unnamed senior Democrat was also upset by his response. I guess it really is true that perspective is everything. 

This concluding song is from the Broadway musical “Man of La Mancha”.  The author Cervantes sings it while in prison, so clearly Cervantes had lost. But his song was his response, that character is more important than winning. 

Elections are about character and policies. But IMHO character is much more important. I might disagree with the policies, but if the character is such that truth matters, then I know that that candidate will fight for those policies as hard as he would fight for mine, and he might even change his policies to mine. If his opponent is a liar, I do not know if that opponent will fight for the policies that he articulated even if I agree with those policies at that present time. The election is about the world being better, not the other candidate being better. Am I certain that President Biden will be elected? Nothing is certain, but the world would be grateful if he is elected.