Month: September 2020

Venus Calling

NASA has spent a lifetime trying to find life on Mars and then Venus made the news more so than Mars….

Researchers have discovered significant sources of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus — a colorless and odorless gas that they say is a possible sign of life, as it’s often the result of organic matter breaking down here on Earth.

The research was led by Jane Greaves from Cardiff University in the UK, and was published in Nature Astronomy today.

So far, Venus hasn’t topped the list of planets seen by astrobiologists as most likely to harbor life. Its surface is a swirling mix of toxic and extremely hot vapors, and temperatures can reach a toasty 800 degrees Fahrenheit (426 Celsius), while high concentrations of sulfuric acid raining from the skies — with thick clouds blocking most sunlight from ever reaching the surface — would ensure that life as we know it would stand little chance of surviving there.

But despite the inhospitable environment on the surface, some microbial life may be able to survive in the planet’s atmosphere, the researchers hypothesize.

https://futurism.com/signs-of-life-venus-phosphine

Is it possible that there could actually be some form of life on Venus?  What can we do to verify the findings?

Researchers announced on Monday that they had found evidence of life in the clouds of Venus, drawing massive media attention.

To confirm that life exists in the planet’s atmosphere, however, would require us to actually go there and have a closer look. The last time a spacecraft entered the Venusian atmosphere was the Soviet Union’s Vega 2 in 1985.

But luckily, private New Zealand-based space company Rocket Lab says it’s already working on sending its own Electron rocket, with a 660 pound spacecraft called Photon on board, to the planet as soon as 2023, The New York Times reports.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/life-venus-rocket-lab-mission

All might want to tread lightly….for like the New World of the 15th century….a flag has already been planted on Venus….

Russian space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin called Venus a “Russian planet” on Tuesday at an industry exhibition taking place in Moscow.

The unusual comment followed the recent high-profile discovery of significant sources of phosphine gas in the planet’s atmosphere, a possible sign of life.

“Our country was the first and only one to successfully land on Venus,” Rogozin said, as quoted by The Moscow Times, referring to the country’s successful explorations of Venus in the 60s, 70s and 80s.

Roscosmos piled on, writing that the “enormous gap between the Soviet Union and its competitors in the investigation of Venus contributed to the fact that the United States called Venus a Soviet planet,” in a statement quoted by Euronews.

https://futurism.com/the-byte/head-russian-space-program-venus-russian-planet

Just a reminder of the finer points of “Space Law”…..

Looks like the rush to claim space has begun and will not end well….wars have broken out over who claims what…..that is history.

Rain a cooler weather will be ours for a few days…..some well deserved coolness.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg

2020 has been a horrible year….and it just got worse.

Sad news…..Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has from cancer.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday at her home in Washington, DC, reports the AP. She was 87. Ginsburg died of complications from metastatic pancreatic cancer, the court says; it was her fifth bout with cancer since 1999. NPR reports that in the days before her death, Ginsburg dictated the following statement to her granddaughter, Clara Spera: “My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.”

“Our nation has lost a justice of historic stature,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement, per NPR. “We at the Supreme Court have lost a cherished colleague. Today we mourn but with confidence that future generations will remember Ruth Bader Ginsburg as we knew her, a tireless and resolute champion of justice.”

Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent a lifetime flourishing in the face of adversity before being appointed a Supreme Court justice, where she successfully fought against gender discrimination and unified the liberal block of the court. She was born Joan Ruth Bader on March 15, 1933 in Brooklyn, New York. Her father was a furrier in the height of the Great Depression, and her mother worked in a garment factory. Ginsburg’s mother instilled a love of education in Ginsburg through her dedication to her brother; foregoing her own education to finance her brother’s college expenses.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg began her career as a justice where she left off as an advocate, fighting for women’s rights. In 1996, Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion in United States v. Virginia, holding that qualified women could not be denied admission to Virginia Military Institute. Her style in advocating from the bench matches her style from her time at the ACLU: slow but steady, and calculated. Instead of creating sweeping limitations on gender discrimination, she attacked specific areas of discrimination and violations of women’s rights one at a time, so as to send a message to the legislatures on what they can and cannot do. Her attitude is that major social change should not come from the courts, but from Congress and other legislatures. This method allows for social change to remain in Congress’ power while also receiving guidance from the court. Ginsburg does not shy away from giving pointed guidance when she feels the need. She dissented in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. where the plaintiff, a female worker being paid significantly less than males with her same qualifications, sued under Title VII but was denied relief under a statute of limitations issue. The facts of this case mixed her passion of federal procedure and gender discrimination. She broke with tradition and wrote a highly colloquial version of her dissent to read from the bench. She also called for Congress to undo this improper interpretation of the law in her dissent, and then worked with President Obama to pass the very first piece of legislation he signed, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, a copy of which hangs proudly in her office.

She was a bright spot on the Court and she will be sadly missed.

My condolences to her family and fiends.

May she Rest In Peace

 

Closing Thought–18Sep20

50 years ago today….the music truly ceased.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the death of rock legend Jimi Hendrix….

Hendrix was born in Seattle in 1942, and was raised mainly by his father Al, since his mother struggled with family life.

Already as a child, Jimi was crazy about playing the guitar. Coming from a poor background, he never considered going to college, and joined the army in 1961 instead, a way for young Black men to make a decent living.

But after spending only one year with the paratroopers, Hendrix broke his ankle during a jump and had to be discharged from duty. That’s when Hendrix started to accompany different R&B bands. 

He went on tour with the Isley Brothers, Little Richard and many other stars of those days; his turf was the so-called Chitlin’ Circuit, an association of African-American dance clubs dotted across the eastern and southern United States. His start in the music business was anything but easy, yet Hendrix got to learn from some of the best and fiercest performers of his time.

https://www.dw.com/en/jimi-hendrix-still-a-legend-50-years-after-his-death/a-54911395

I was fortunate enough to see Jimi in a club called the “Oleo Strut”…..the club held about 200 people and it cost me 2 dollars to get in the door.

Let me close out the week with a few Hendrix songs….and remember.

All Along The Watch Tower…..

Hey Joe……

Jimi has been missed for 50 years….without his guitar we wind up with crap like Nickleback.

Jime Hendrix…..1942-1970……

The Real Day The Music Died.

“lego ergo scribo”

After The Fall?

Okay the America Civil War is over….the North has defeated the South in the war of “Northern Aggression”…..where did the losers slink off to after the fall?

Not all ran home to the plantation to lick their wounds.

Some went West and even some went as far as Mexico….but what did the majority actually do?

The late Charlie Daniels had a decent hit in 1974 with “The South’s Gonna Do It Again.” It would have provided a proper ear worm for Confederate forces and loyalists in 1865 after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. Post-war conditions were not ideal in the southern states. Most of the war had been fought on Confederate soil, and it showed. Agriculture and infrastructure were devastated. Thousands of lives had been lost; other lives were irretrievably damaged. Economic opportunity was nearly nonexistent.

Some people went West to start over. There was land to be settled for displaced Southerners. More than one writer has suggested that part of the controversy in Tombstone, Arizona, between the Earps and the Cow-boys was that the Earps and their backers were Northerners — Virgil and James had both fought in the Union army — and as Casey Tefertiller writes in Wyatt Earp: The Life Behind the Legend, “the ranchers and cowboys of southern Arizona were mostly Democrats of Southern origin or sympathies.” (Doc Holliday, Earp ally and son of Georgia, was an exception.) But not everyone who remained loyal to the defeated Confederacy — the noble “Lost Cause,” celebrated by poets like Father Abram Ryan, per the Alabama website — even stayed within the freshly reunited United States. Slavery was abolished. The cause was lost. The war was over — but that didn’t have to mean the end. They were facing a military occupation by Northern troops in the wake of the conflict, what some called the “War of Northern Aggression.”

https://www.grunge.com/235923/this-is-where-confederate-loyalists-fled-to-after-the-civil-war/

Then there are the defeated leaders…..what became of these men?

Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, spent two years shackled to a wall in a Virginia prison. He had many unlikely sympathetic supporters including the Pope, who advocated for mercy, and even some former enemies and abolitionists. After he was released he went to Canada and Cuba and England and eventually managed a successful insurance company, hiring only former Confederate officers. He remained an unrepentant racist and Confederate supporter until the end of his life.

Alexander Stephens, the vice president of the Confederacy, was arrested and held in prison at George’s Island in Boston until October, 1865. He was released from indemnity by Andrew Johnson, a pro-slavery, anti-Black President. He was elected to the Senate, which refused to allow him to sit; was elected to Congress; and became the governor of Georgia. Stephens was a rabid anti-Black racist who wrote the “Cornerstone Speech” stating the the Civil War was all about slavery and that Blacks would never be the equals of Whites.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/553359/where-did-confederate-leaders-go-after-confederacy-was-defeated

There were so many things that most Americans do not know about the Civil War….so much more than bang bang shoot’um up……

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Those Bounties Again

Those alleged “bounties” that Russia and possibly Iran have been accused of paying for the deaths of US troops is still making the rounds with those corporate stoolies that called themselves journalists.

When the story broke I let my readers know about the report and of course what I thought of the BS…..

https://lobotero.com/2020/07/02/mutiny-of-the-bounties/

https://lobotero.com/2020/08/25/more-bounties-claim/

If you read my two posts then you will know why I have not been consumed with these stories as major stories…..

Finally the intel community has stated that these accusations cannot be verified…..

Months after The New York Times reported that Russia secretly offered bounties to the Taliban to kill US troops in Afghanistan, a top US commander says a detailed review of all available intelligence found no corroboration of the story.

Gen. Frank McKenzie, commander of US CENTCOM, spoke with NBC News about the matter. “It just has not been proved to a level of certainty that satisfies me,” McKenzie said. “We continue to look for that evidence. I just haven’t seen it yet.”

An unnamed military intelligence official also told NBC News that after reviewing the intelligence of attacks on US forces in Afghanistan over the past several years, none had been linked to any Russian bounty payments.

McKenzie’s comments reflect statements made by other top military officials shortly after the Times story broke. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper took the position that the Pentagon did not have “corroborating evidence” to support the Times report back in June.

In a hearing in front of the House Armed Services Committee in July, Esper said all the defense intelligence agencies have been “unable to corroborate this report.” In that same hearing, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley took the same position. Both Milley and McKenzie vowed to keep investigating the intelligence, and now, two months later, there is still no evidence to back up the claims.

Other intelligence agencies have strongly dissented from the claim that Russia was paying bounties to the Taliban, most notably the National Security Agency (NSA). The National Intelligence Council produced a memo in July that showed the NSA only gave “low” confidence to the Russian bounty intelligence.

Intelligence agencies use confidence levels to reflect the scope and quality of the intelligence they are assessing. There are three confidence levels, “high,” “moderate,” and “low.” The same memo that said the NSA gave the bounty intelligence “low” confidence also revealed the CIA gave it “moderate” confidence, which still leaves plenty of room for doubt.

(antiwar.com)

This is just noise…..political rhetoric…..

So far nothing about this continuing report can be proven….and yet the media continues to use it to belittle the president…..and they (whoever ‘they’ are) say the MSM is unbiased……my ass!

I am by NO means a fan of the president but he has done so much that is wrong that a lie is not needed to accuse him.

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Greco-Turkish Tensions

Looks like the Balkans are being heated up once again….this time it is age old enemies of Greece and Turkey…..

These nations have fought numerous times…..1821, 1897 and 1974……I have tried to keep my readers informed…..

Greco-Turkish Mindset

Greco-Turkic Drama

Why do these two nations tirelessly hate each other?

https://youtu.be/gcw17YC4AtM

Recently it has been a war fought over the island nation of Cyprus…..this time Cyprus is still in the picture but they seem to be focusing on the control of some natural resources…..

U.S. and other Western leaders have long worried about what to do if an armed conflict ever erupted between two NATO members. Rapidly rising tensions between Greece and Turkey, primarily involving a maritime dispute over oil, natural gas, and other resources under the eastern Mediterranean, have brought that nightmare to the surface once again. Germany’s Foreign Minister, Heiko Maas, warned both governments in late August against further military escalation. “Fire is being played with and any small spark could lead to catastrophe,” he stressed.

The heart of the North Atlantic Treaty is Article 5, which proclaims that an attack on any member of the Alliance will be considered an attack on all. The underlying assumption is that there would then be a collective response to repel and punish the aggressor. Obviously, that approach would not work if two NATO signatories went to war against each other. Even determining which country was the aggressor and which the victim could be quite challenging.

https://www.cato.org/blog/old-nato-nightmare-returns-possible-war-between-greece-turkey

Greece is buying weapons from France in prep for a confrontation…

conservative Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced a purchase of billions of euros in French weaponry and a large increase in the size of the Greek military. This massive increase in military spending, by a country which the European Union (EU) has devastated with billions of euros in draconian cuts to social spending over the last decade, marks a major escalation in Greece’s ongoing military standoff with Turkey.

Mitsotakis indicated that Greece will purchase 18 Rafale fighter jets, four French naval frigates with naval helicopters, and a large supply of anti-tank weapons, torpedoes and missiles. It will also ask French firms to upgrade four Greek frigates that are already in service. Finally, Mitsotakis said that 15,000 more soldiers would be recruited to the Greek armed forces.

“The time has come to reinforce our armed forces. … This is an important program that will form a national shield,” Mitsotakis declared in a speech in Thessaloniki.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/09/14/gree-s14.html

Will be a test for NATO…..an attack on one is an attack on all…..and this time it will be two member nations fighting each other….who will the US support?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Constitution Day

Closing Thought–17Sep20

It is 17 September and the day set aside as Constitution Day……if ever there should be a federal holiday to celebrate our independence it should be 17 September….for it is when the United States stepped out of confusion and presented the republic to the nation.

Of course that is just my opinion….but since it is Constitution Day I would like to write about the document that is so cherished by us Americans.

First the day we are celebrating…..

Constitution Day is observed every year on September 17 to commemorate the signing and adoption of the constitution of the United States of America by the Founding Fathers in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787.

Constitution Day is also known as Citizenship Day, which was the name of the holiday until 2004, as its purpose was to “recognize all who, by coming of age or by naturalization, have become citizens”. Citizenship Day in turn was inspired by “I am an American Day”, created in the 1940s to celebrate citizenship. The official name of the holiday is now “Constitution Day and Citizenship Day”.

Celebrations are held on this day, and schools hold instruction sessions on the founding principles and the significance of the US constitution and the constitutional rights contained in it. When the day falls on a Saturday or Sunday, schools and other institutions observe Constitution Day on a nearby weekday.

Further reading: Constitution Day on Wikipedia

Do yourself a favor and read the document…..

https://www.constituteproject.org/constitution/United_States_of_America_1992

https://www.senate.gov/civics/constitution_item/constitution.htm

Click to access CDOC-110hdoc50.pdf

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Vietnam–The Mistakes

Old Professor’s History Class.

I study conflict, war if you will, and have found a couple of events around the war in Vietnam that can be labelled as arrogant mistakes….first by France and then by the US.

I realize there have been volumes written about this conflict….but few by people that actually fought that war.

As a veteran of this war I have studied and made my thoughts known….but there were more mistakes than just those of the US….France for instance was just as arrogant as the US and it cost them the territory and the war….a war that the US had to pick up and carry on (more on that further into this post)……

First thing to do is to throw all the Hollywood adaptations of this war down the toilet (TP not needed)……most of that stuff was total bullshit…….

France’s biggest screw up was arrogantly thinking they had a force, the Viet Minh, that was backward and incapable of carry on a proper war…..that was true and Giap decided that a guerilla war would accomplish the desires of throwing the French from Vietnamese soil.

The final nail in the coffin of the French in Vietnam was the battle of Dien Bien Phu……

It is 1954 in Southeast Asia….the French have been fighting for years against the Viet Minh under Ho and Giap and the French decided to make one final push to destroy opposition and be done with this war.  Sadly it did not work out as brilliantly as the French had promised……in fact a band of guerillas with no technology, aircraft, etc. handed the French their asses…..

The most consequential military engagement in Southeast Asia in the 20th century is the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu. It was fought ostensibly between the French and the communist-led Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu, an obscure valley bordering China, in the remote northwestern part of what was then French Indochina. The battle ended with a humiliating defeat for the French, which brought down the French government, ended French colonial rule in Asia, ushered in America’s epic military involvement in the region for decades to come, and fundamentally changed the global geostrategic landscape.

How the French lost this pivotal battle is just as telling as how significant the French defeat became.

https://www.hoover.org/research/lessons-dien-bien-phu

This conflict is seldom taught classes these days….and I think it should be mandatory…..this conflict illustrates just how very brilliant of a guerilla war can be…..and could have prevented mistakes.

Not all the mistakes we by the French in the Southeast Asian wars…..the US was just as arrogant as the French.

That brings me to the Tet Offensive…..

I was fortunate enough to live through those days of constant fighting….

I was a member of a LRRP team (long range recon) and for days we were watching a NVA troop movement we identified the unit as the 174th NVA Regitment…..we made our way back to base and reported what we had found and were basically called liars for they had info that they were camped 100 km northwest of the position we reported….in other words they believed signal intel over human intel and it bit them in the ass for the 174th was one of the units that did a lot of damage.

Finally someone has written about the lack of any good human intel in Vietnam……

The intelligence failings fall into three broad categories. In Vietnam, the US military possessed a lack of foresight, neglected fundamental intelligence-gathering principles, and suffered from an absence of strategy and direction.

On a fundamental level, US military intelligence was unable to gauge the level of communist infiltration in the South of the country. This meant the US forces had almost no idea of the size of the enemy’s forces

https://parlia.com/a/Pb7sF3gPgNp5NmfJLP7FzZj/why-did-the-us-lose-the-vietnam-war/us-strategic-failures/intelligence-failures

It was a lie then and it is a lie now!

The officials were told what was coming and everyone decide to believe a pile of mumbo jumbo from the electronics instead of those that had witnessed the movements.

For those interested this is the declassified reports……

https://www.intelligence.gov/tet-declassified/tet-declassified-documents

Further Reading:

https://www.thehistorypress.co.uk/articles/the-vietnam-war-tet-offensive/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tet-Offensive

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is Trump What America Needs?

I know some readers will say yes he is….and others will scoff at the idea.

But is he?

That’s look at the country as a whole and not your personal beliefs.

In 2016, Americans were asked to pick their poison.

On the one hand a highly competent, highly qualified mainstream pro-Wall Street pro-corporate candidate who would in most regards hold the Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama trajectory—while entirely missing the desperation working Americans were feeling.

On the other hand a corrupt businessman calling bullshit on the entire system, willing to burn everything down to Make America Great Again—meaning give working people back the dignity (and manufacturing jobs) that had been stolen from them by the evil cabal of globalist elites. The fact that he was lying was entirely beside the point for his supporters.

And many Americans were willing to live with his exploiting of resentments and divisions to get anything that wasn’t business as usual.

What was business as usual?

What If Donald Trump Is What America Needed?

An interesting article by a publication started by “Never Trumpers”……..

This question makes me think of a political theory…that being the theory of the unitary executive…..

To what extent can presidential power be restricted by Congress?

Some believe the president holds broad power, citing this passage from Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution:

The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.

And from Section 3:

[H]e shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.The view that the president holds total control over the executive branch is called the unitary executive theory.

Under the George W. Bush administration’s interpretation of the unitary executive theory, the president has authority over members of the executive branch.

 

He functions as a CEO or Commander-in-Chief, and his power is restricted only by the U.S. Constitution as interpreted by the judiciary.

Congress can hold the president accountable only by censure, impeachment or constitutional amendment. Legislation restricting the executive branch has no power.

https://www.thoughtco.com/unitary-executive-theory-the-imperial-presidency-721716

SCOTUS is making the case for a “Unitary Executive”…..

On June 29, Chief Justice John Roberts relied heavily on something called the “Decision of 1789” to expand presidential removal powers. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Seila Law v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that the structure of the CFPB was unconstitutional as an independent agency, because Congress required the president to have good cause to remove its single director.

Roberts held that such a requirement interfered with a president’s power to supervise the executive branch, because a sole director with for-cause protection would have held too much concentrated power independent from presidential control. Roberts limited this decision to principal officers as singular heads of agencies, as opposed to commissions. However, his expansion of the “unitary executive” theory could continue expanding presidential power and thwart potential reforms to address recent abuses.

https://www.lawfareblog.com/imaginary-unitary-executive

That said…now I ask is there a pragmatic cvases for a unitary executive?

The theory of the unitary executive is gaining traction in American law. That view of the Constitution asserts that the president controls whatever power is given to the executive branch of the federal government. As a result, the president must be able to dismiss his subordinate executives at will. Otherwise, these officials will be responsive to others or to themselves, not to the chief executive.

The unitary executive is persistently, sometimes willfully, confused with the notion that the president enjoys large residual constitutional powers. But the scope of presidential powers is distinct from the control over whatever those powers are. As Justice Samuel Alito said at his confirmation hearing, the first question “is the scope of Executive power: [W]e might think of that as how big is this table, the extent of the Executive powers.” That was distinct from a different question, “[W]hen you have a power that is within the prerogative of the Executive, who controls [it]?” The unitary executive is concerned only with the second question

The Pragmatic Case for a Unitary Executive

After the ruling by SCOTUS and the chance for a pragmatic reason for the unitary executive…..are there any risks?

Of course there is!

PHH Corporation involves a challenge to the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a powerful financial regulatory agency headed by a single director appointed by the president for a five‐​year term, during which he or she can only be removed “for cause.” As Kavanaugh explains, the Constitution lodges all “executive” power in the hands of the president. Independent agencies such as the CFPB, he says, are “a headless fourth branch of the U.S. Government” that poses “a significant threat to individual liberty and to the constitutional system of separation of powers.”

https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/risks-unitary-executive

My thought is that when it comes to governing the US….the 3 branch system is by far superior than any system that has one all powerful demagogue at the head.

Any thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Picking That President

Paper #2 of 2

2020 and we are in the process of picking our next president……all of which does not in the least represent what the people actually want or need.

Is there a better way to pick the leader of the free world?

Of course there is…..the quickest way in my opinion is to eliminate the Electoral College…..

Americans are understandably disillusioned with how the Electoral College picks presidential winners. The system arguably functions contrary to expectations of how a democracy should work, and inconsistently with the purpose the founders intended.

There are some bold reform proposals on the table that deserve consideration in the long run—ideas that would solve the problem that presidents can be elected despite the majority of voters opposing them, an outcome unthinkable in any democracycommitted to majority rule. The problem is that most of these proposals either aren’t going to be feasible by 2020, if ever, or, on close inspection, would actually worsen the problems they’re intended to solve.

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/05/04/electoral-college-reform-2020-226792

But are Americans truly wanting to eliminate the stupidity?

The Electoral College, which allowed the past two Republican presidents to win office with fewer votes than their opponents, has officially become a joke.

In a skit last week, Saturday Night Live lampooned how the US is picking its leaders by highlighting the fact that most voters have no say in who will become president. But the Electoral College is no laughing matter. 

As long as the same person won the popular vote and the Electoral College, this wasn’t a problem. But with the last two Republicans owing their election to an antiquated system and not the support of a majority of voters, it has dawned on many Americans that something is amiss — especially because things seem to be getting worse.

If recent history is any indication, this is not just a problem for the loser but also for the winner. The former will miss out on being president despite getting more votes, while the latter has to live with questions about their mandate — or even their legitimacy.

Are Americans Ready to Junk the Electoral College?

There is yet another possibility that needs discussion……on the Electoral College and their voting for president….

Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case challenging state laws that bind Electoral College electors to vote for the presidential candidate they are selected to support. The case was brought in response to four 2016 electors — three from Washington and one from Colorado — who tried to vote against their state’s popular vote winner, and, in the case of the Washington electors, faced fines for having broken their pledges.

These so-called “faithless electors” have long been a feature of American presidential elections, but it’s possible that the Supreme Court could shake up the Electoral College system, striking down state laws that try to guarantee electors’ votes by replacing or punishing those who don’t vote as they promised to. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the overall lack of enforcement of electors’ pledge to vote for the winner of their state troubled her, saying, “I made a promise to do something, but that promise is unenforceable.” But Justice Samuel Alito said that overturning the state laws could “lead to chaos where the popular vote is close.”

If The Supreme Court Lets The Electoral College Vote However It Wants, Will Chaos Ensue?

There are a wealth of ideas to fix the stupidity of the picking of the president/nominee….personally I kinda like the national primary thing…….Let people nationwide cast their primary ballots all at once.

There are others as well…here are 6 ideas….

Every four years, Iowans are deluged with the talking points, the stump speeches, the polls and, of course, the ads.

They also hear that they shouldn’t be first. Iowans are too white, too old and too few to merit first-in-the-nation status, say the critics.

But if Iowa shouldn’t be first, who should be? For more than a century, reformers have been proposing ideas for how to change the primary system. And they’ve been failing. And they’ll probably continue to fail.

No one is going to persuade state and party machinery to change the current primary system anytime soon. However, these ideas can at least help show what works (and what doesn’t) about the way things are now.

Here are just a few of the ideas people have proposed over the years:

https://www.npr.org/2016/01/26/463870736/no-way-to-pick-a-president-here-are-6-other-ways-to-do-it

One last thought on the presidency……a little historic rambling…..

If the prospect of the Trump – Biden presidential election fills you with horror and despair, you might give some thought to not just replacing both candidates but the presidency as well, at least as we now conceive it.

For some time now, but maybe since the Kennedy administration (which ended in a hail of voter-suppressed gunfire), I have been thinking that one of the biggest problems with American democracy is the presidency itself, the idea that the chief magistrate of the country should be one person elected every four years by a few swing voters in Ohio, North Carolina, or Florida.

Get Rid of the Presidency

Any thoughts on this topic?

One closing cartoon…..

Image

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”