Tag: Governance

Time To Eliminate The Congressional Gerontocracy

Gerontocracy? Yep the rule by old farts.

I have a pet peeve, I know I have many, but this one is paramount in our government….it is time for the reform of Congress to begin and please start with the amount of old farts that stumble through the governing process.

Let’s look at today’s Congress just a few things….Pelosi age 84 falls and has to have a hip replacement, then there is the head GOPer in the Senate, McConnell age 82,  who over the last few years has fallen multiple times that last time in messed up his wrist and now we have a sitting Representative that is in a care home….let’s not forget about the senile old fart that was over 100 years old and still serving in Congress…..

Concerns that elected officials in Congress are too old resurfaced over the weekend following news that retiring U.S. Rep. Kay Granger, 81, has been residing at a senior living facility, according to her son. Granger has not cast a vote since July.

On Friday, the outlet The Dallas Express published an investigation into Granger’s whereabouts, reporting that Granger (R-Texas) is currently living at Tradition Senior Living in Fort Worth, which provides memory care services. Granger’s son, Brandon Granger, said that his mother is not in the memory care facility, but he said she does reside at Tradition Senior Living, according to The Dallas Morning News. The outlet also reported that her son said she has been “having some dementia issues late in the year.”

Reacting to the news on Sunday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) wrote: “Kay Granger’s long absence reveals the problem with a Congress that rewards seniority & relationships more than merit & ideas. We have a sclerotic gerontocracy.”

“American gerontocracy, on both sides of the political aisle, is an absolute embarrassment,” wrote the journalist Mehdi Hasan on Saturday.

The journalist Ken Klippenstein echoed these remarks. In a post on Bluesky he argued it shouldn’t be taboo for the media to point out when elected officials appear to be impaired by age. “Part of why the gerontocracy exists is because the news media is so squeamish about calling this stuff out,” he wrote.

According to a breakdown from The Washington Post in 2023, the median age in Congress has been trending upward in recent decades. Last year, 48% of all members of Congress were Baby Boomers, and 19 lawmakers elected to the 118th Congress are members of the Silent Generation, meaning they were born at some point between 1928 and 1945.

After the 2024 presidential race, during which President Joe Biden stepped down as the presumptive Democratic nominee following a disastrous debate performance that sparked widespread concerns that he was not fit to run, there was some reshuffling of the Democratic leadership on congressional committees which saw younger lawmakers take over. However, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), 35, was unsuccessful in her bid to be the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. She was bested by 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.)

Pod Save America co-host Dan Pfeiffer indicated that the thinking that drove some members to favor Connolly is also what was behind Democrats’ loss of the White House on November 5.

“Valuing seniority over political and messaging chops is exactly how Democrats got into this mess in the first place,” he wrote on X in mid-December.

(commondreams.org)

Time for this to be addressed……even the presidency is full of old farts with lots of backward thinking….this country needs forward thinkers not old farts grasping at the past.

Anything to add?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Good That Was Trump

This post ought to get those hostility juices flowing…..but I would like to state here that this post is NOT what the title implies….as the reader will see upon completion of the link included.

Irony being inherently ironic, it would be easy to dismiss as delusional or harebrained any argument to the effect that Donald Trump’s totalistically execrable behavior over time may have had positive effects on the American public. But let us not blind ourselves to the validity of this counterintuitive notion. By the same token, let us concede that Trump speaks and acts in many ways like other segments of the larger political class – only more extremely, dogmatically and unceasingly. While his hard-wired true believers may see him as a political and ideological Man on Horseback, to those outside his insular, tribal cohort, he is an apocalyptic horseman worthy only of scorn. 

Here are 20 examples of how Trump may have benefited America, or at least where Trumpian maleficence, malfeasance and malpractice have alerted us anew or reawakened us to ideas and practices we once cherished but perhaps have grown complacent about. (In some instances, we may find upon reflection that America’s founders left us holding the bag in the face of the regnant tyranny Trump represents today.) In this newfound “knowing,” the reasoned and reasonable among us may have unwittingly benefited in this Era of Trump.

1. Voting. The late Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, longtime president of the University of Notre Dame, characterized voting as a “civic sacrament,” a rite conferring divine grace on those who fulfill their obligation as citizens to register their choices for public office. Too many of us, let us admit, have come to take voting for granted as a free good that costs nothing, whether we exercise it or not. Thus do we account for America’s consistently low voter turnout rates over time. Trump has weaponized votes, voting and the electoral process in every conceivable way: by manipulating and attempting to negate vote counts; suppressing and disenfranchising voters; shamelessly perpetuating the Big Lie that his 2020 election loss was rigged and stolen; and, most recently, threatening blood in the streets if he loses in 2024. If this hasn’t reminded us of the sanctity of the vote, nothing will.

https://www.salon.com/2024/04/21/20-reasons-why-donald-has-been-good-for-america-no-seriously/

Anything anyone would like to add?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–18Mar24

I have been ranting for many years about the necessity for age limits in our public figures (all of them)….

Well North Dakota has stepped up to be the first (I think)….

North Dakota voters will decide in June whether to prevent people from running for Congress if they would reach age 81 during their House or Senate term, the AP reports. A signature drive successfully added the question to the ballot, Secretary of State Michael Howe’s office announced Friday, and while some legal scholars say the age limit would be unconstitutional, it could lead to a challenge of a US Supreme Court precedent that has held for decades. Howe said the courts may eventually decide the issue. He cautioned against “a blanket approach,” per the North Dakota Monitor.

“I think there are people who are capable of holding office past the age of 80,” he said, “and I think there are people who are not capable of it either.” The ballot initiative wouldn’t prevent current incumbents from running again. The measure could be an attempt to draw a test case to see if the US Supreme Court would allow individual states to set congressional age limits, University of North Dakota political science professor Mark Jendrysik said. The court ruled in a 1995 term limits case that states cannot set qualifications for Congress beyond those listed in the US Constitution, which says candidates must be at least 25 to serve in the House, 30 for the Senate, and 35 to become president. The Constitution sets no maximum age limits.

The measure “looks unconstitutional” under that 1995 decision, said Jason Marisam of the Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. But a test case against the age limit would need a challenge, most likely from a would-be candidate, Marisam said, which may or may not happen. The chairman of the initiative committee, Jared Hendrix, has said the idea is to avoid cognitive and age-related issues related to elderly officeholders. The measure’s push began last summer during age- and health-related scrutiny of members of Congress. Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein died last year at 90 after health struggles, and Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, 82, froze twice in front of reporters.

I say bully for North Dakota….but 81?

I think that is a bit odd….why 81?

My thought is make the mandatory retirement age at 65.

Maybe this will help to wake of the voter that old farts need to be a home rocking on the front porch and waving at passing cars….especially at 81.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Can A Virus Save A Struggling Nation?

The virus has come upon us and we are in a panic……a president bumbling his way around the issue, markets unstable at best, and the Congress playing games with American lives……looks like our democracy is in a tail spin…..if so can we save this democracy from going the way of the Dodo?

The coronavirus pandemic is already having a profound impact on nearly all aspects of life in the United States, and even a best-case scenario will likely result in the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. There is, however, one area in which it could lead to much-needed improvements: voting rights. 

For decades, some states have made it more difficult for certain Americans — namely people of color — to vote. Some of these efforts, like closing polling locations, limiting the number of voting machines available at certain sites, or reducing early-voting options, resulted in voters having to wait in line for hours to cast a ballot.

In the age of social distancing, those wait times are not just unacceptable but also dangerous. That is why experts are calling on governments across all levels to put in place measures that will protect voters from getting sick on Election Day. Implementing them would protect Americans not only from the coronavirus but also from these voter suppression efforts. 

Can the Coronavirus Heal America’s Broken Democracy?

Another thought…I have read some stuff around the news world that the DOJ is looking for expanding powers…..

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has reportedly asked Congress for a host of new powers as the coronavirus spreads across the country, including the ability to ask judges to detain people indefinitely without trial during emergency situations and natural disasters.

The requests, first reported by Politico’s Betsy Woodruff Swan Saturday, come amid concerns the Trump administration is using the pandemic to implement major policy changes such as tighter border and asylum restrictions. Given President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on March 13, the powers requested by the DOJ would likely be in effect should its request be granted. However, the requests are unlikely to be approved — a bipartisan group of lawmakers has already signaled opposition to them.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/22/21189937/coronavirus-department-justice-doj-powers

Whose idea was this expansion? 

More stuff being written about…..some have said that Trump will try and postpone/cancel the election in November until he can have a more favorable news cycle….ask….can he do that?

Ohio’s director of health, Dr. Amy Acton, delayed that state’s primary election, which was originally scheduled for Tuesday. She did so with the blessing of Republican Gov. Mike DeWine and of the state Supreme Court.

As a matter of law, this decision to delay the election is defensible, and there is no evidence that Acton or DeWine acted in bad faith — their efforts to postpone the election appear to be motivated by a genuine desire to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

But this delay of a state primary election understandably triggered fears that other officials, potentially even President Trump, might take advantage of the Ohio precedent to postpone or cancel November’s election if it appears that Trump is likely to be defeated.

https://www.vox.com/2020/3/21/21188152/trump-cancel-november-election-constitution-coronavirus

So much disinformation……all we can do is try and separate the the crap from the sirloin……

This pandemic could save our democracy……but the people will need to want it to be saved…..

America is in a haze right now. It seems like half the country is in denial of the danger while the other half is awaking from apathy and frantically trying to prepare. This is creating a fog of confusion as one side screams “it’s nothing but the flu, stop buying up the grocery store…!”, and the other side just keeps stocking goods, though in an inexperienced way that prioritizes comfort over practicality.

The other day I went by the grocery store to grab a few peripheral items while they still exist on sale, and this was the first time since the Covid-19 situation began that people in my area actually seemed…different.   The usual carefree obliviousness was gone from their faces and they all had a deer-in-the-headlights look, their eyes wide as saucers as they nervously scrambled around the store.  None of them were absorbed into their cell phones.  All of them were alert as many people huddled over their cart, quickly snatching items from the shelves as if protecting themselves from potential thieves.  It seems that reality is finally hitting the masses square in the face like a sucker punch.

http://www.alt-market.com/index.php/articles/4154-from-quarantine-to-tyranny-to-rebellion-where-is-the-line-in-the-sand

Sorry to say but the US use to be a strong leader around the world that others look to for leadership…..and after this virus is beaten the US will lead, reallY?

First, there are worrying trends to overcome. Global institutions already have absorbed damage from which it will be difficult to recover. The European Union, or EU, has taken a body blow. With the organization unable to generate a coordinated response, member countries are taking their own paths and some will be crushed by debt. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization harmed its reputation by uncritically accepting China’s official line on the virus. As internationalism recedes, more states may look inward.

It’s already happening for some citizens. Facing economic and social dislocation, the cross-border spread of the virus has increased nationalist fervor in many parts of the world. Collapsing supply-chains for things like medical equipment will increase reliance on domestic production, a change that some are cheering on. Political populism already on the rise in Europe and the United States will continue to spread, leaving a leadership void as the world struggles with recovery.

https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2020/04/us-must-lead-world-out/164433/

Sorry to say but I do not see this current administration capable of leading this country anywhere but ruin.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Governance By Gaslighting

Did anyone ever see the move “Gaslight”?  A mystery aboiut a guy that convinces his wife that she is losing her mind….Charles Boyer (?) and Ingrid Bergman (?)…….we have a leader, the president that is governing by gaslight.

Gaslighting is one of the most extreme, dangerous and effective forms of emotional and psychological abuse and is mostly carried out intentionally. Gaslighting is a game of mind control and intimidation that is often used by narcissists and sociopaths as a way of controlling, confusing and debilitating someone.

The whole intention of gaslighting is to decrease someone’s self-esteem and self-confidence so they are unable to function in an independent manner. The person being gaslighted will eventually become so insecure that they will fail to trust their own judgment, their intuition and find themselves unable to make decisions.

Eventually the victim will become so unsure of what reality looks like that they become completely dependent on their abuser. The abuser will appear to the victim to be the only one to have a clear grip of their mind and also of what is going on around them.

Why do I bring all this up?

My father once told me that a man who worked with him told him that his wife walked in on him in flagrante delicto with another woman and the man denied it. I said, well, what is the guy a pathological liar—you can’t deny the obvious fact. My father said he didn’t know but it somehow seemed to give the man’s wife enough to excuse, forgive, or lose herself in denial. They were still married. It was a new ontological perspective for me—a look at a nature of being that perplexed me.

Years later I learned the metaphorical expression for that sort of blatant horse puckey, gaslighting, or, Are you going to believe me or your stupid lying eyes? It was from a film with a plot that showed how a man made his wife start to believe she was crazy—she stopped trusting the facts.

https://www.laprogressive.com/trump-gaslighting/

All this is just sad that the American public is being played like a cheap drum…..the sooner they, the American people, realize it the sooner this country gets back on track.

Trump’s Government Overhaul

Does anyone besides me remember the promise by Donald Trump that if he was elected that he would overhaul the government….drain the swamp I believe was the term he used.  And the peasants cheered and danced.

Personally I did not bite on the loaded hook that he dangled……

The president has the right idea. But he forgot to include the people that can make it happen.

The executive order issued by President Donald Trump yesterday has a goal nearly every citizen and legislator would cheer: to “improve the efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of the executive branch.”

What’s not to like? The executive branch is an organizational basket case, and it sorely needs a re-think. For 238 years, citizen legislators and presidents have come to town with dreams of fixing public problems, hatching new agencies and programs to do it, many of which live long beyond the problem they were intended to solve. The slow aggregation of government initiatives has produced a $3.8 trillion per year government with at least 180 agencies. With each passing year, the government becomes more complex and incoherent — “kludgeocracy”, as political scientist Steven Teles termed it.

Source: Why Trump’s government overhaul won’t work

And then there is the budget……Trump being a Repub he will no doubt be in the mood for a skinny budget…..a budget that does wonders for the rich and screws the poor unmercifully….

So will Trump’s budget…..

The skinny budget should show how President Trump proposes to allocate these massive cuts. These details will help answer the following five questions about the Trump agenda in order to determine whether President Trump is trying to help ordinary Americans or using government to advance the narrow interests of powerful elites:

  • Does the budget protect basic living standards for American families?
  • Does the budget create good jobs?
  • Does the budget ensure a level playing field?
  • Does the budget launch partisan attacks on American democracy?
  • Does the budget make Americans safer?

Source: 5 Things to Watch in President Trump’s Skinny Budget – Center for American Progress

The answers my friend are blowing in the wind……

Democracy 3 | Take Control of your Country!

All of us bloggers bitch and moan about the condition of our country…..no matter whether it be Left or Right…..be bitch………We all think we know what is best for the country…….and most of us think we could do better running the country than the twats we elect…..

If you are one of these that can do a better job at governance…….. then I say to you……… prove it!

All you youngsters that spend more time with a game control than a book in your hand….then try this and prove that you are smarter than everyone else…..

 

Democracy 3 | Take Control of your Country!.

Disclaimer:  I am in NO way being compensated for this post…..I just think it is a simple way of proving that you are smarter than the elected officials.

 

These Numbers Prove We’re Heading For A More Progressive America | ThinkProgress

For too long us on the Left, and I am talking about the real Left, have been waiting for something to happen that would help make the people see the necessity for a more progressive government………and could there be a future quickly approaching?

If you listen closely…..we can hear their butts slamming shut!

These Numbers Prove We’re Heading For A More Progressive America | ThinkProgress.

All Things Political

Nope, not a spot on NPR or some wild accusation by Glenn Beck…..but rather an explanation and a bit of history…..

Politics!  As my readers will know that I enjoy all things about politics….all the little things as well as all the really big things…..but what is meant by the term politics?  According to Gore Vidal the word politics is a combination of two Greek words…….poli meaning the people and tics which are blood sucking insects…..

Back in the day……way back to as early as the Greek city states……politics referred to the operation and the administration of the state or the sovereign….everything else fell into the realm of social or private…it is a recent invention to include just about everything as political…..our leaders wishing to claim responsibility for all things good in our society and dealing out blame for all things that are bad, all are happening because of political decisions made by the state or its opposition…in other words blame everything on nature of politics.

Issues like marriage, guns, prayers, flags, etc….these are social or private issues and do not belong in the realm of politics….these are decisions made by an individual and not by a government.  I know…I know…this sounds a bit libertarian….believe me these issues have only recently been associated with the study of politics……personal opinion…..they were introduced into the conversation because some had NO idea how to govern and they were used to divide and conquer a populace.

In these days of limited government/small government maybe a real good place to start would be to limit the politics to issues that actually pertain to the governing of the masses……..I realize in these days that the concept of government be about the running of the country and to stay out of people’s lives is a novel concept….but what the Hell?  We could do no worse than the system we have today.

Theatrics is NOT the way to have a successful government……and since that is true……we have a dysfunctional system of governance…..lack of civility, disrespect and lack of national unity….the three pillars of American politics…….is going to kill a system that our Founders were proud of……if only they could see it now!

Do They Have A Good Idea?

College of Political Knowledge

Subject:  International Politics/Political Theory

I realize that many people here in the US are watching or even give a darn about the occurrences in Northern Africa, Tunisia to be exact….I mean we are all dealing with the most recent form of violence in the US…the shootings and violence in Tucson….but we need to be paying attention…..there are somethings that are similar and watch how others handle their societal problems…..I am NOT saying that we should ignore the disaster in Arizona, but rather we should be able to do more than focus on one thing…..I usually try to post on international situations on Wednesdays, because there is more to the world than what happens in the US….but today the two will intersect…….

Okay back to Tunisia……Tunisia has been wracked by angry demonstrations, with citizens — angry with the government’s performance — protesting high unemployment, alleged corruption, rising prices, and a limitations on rights.  And because of these things Tunisia is wracked with violent protests……

He (Ben Ali, the president)  has decided to form a committee to probe the violence and a second committee to look into complaints of bribery, corruption and officials’ mistakes, TV reported.

Ben Ali also called on the country’s two houses of parliament to meet in an emergency session and implement presidential decrees to help raise employment, create more resources to improve peoples’ living and push for more investments.

Geez!  And all it took was the people standing up and demanding, yes violently, that something be done…something that benefits the average person and NOT the wealthy of the country, which has become wealthier under the Ali administration, some say because of rampant corruption…

Maybe the people in the US should take a page out of this playbook…..not the violence…..repeat NOT the violence….but maybe they should start demonstrating for jobs, fair wages, adequate health care and a break from the massive favoritism shown to corporation, especially since they are NOT creating anything but wealth for themselves and their friends in Washington….

It is beyond the time for Americans to return to the days of civil disobedience……since the political system is NOT working for ALL Americans…..it is time to make the system work and work better than it has in 30 years……my friends…time to return to the streets!  We have waited long enough for the politicos to do the right thing and apparently they are incapable of such….then we need to take things into our own hands and MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Addendum:  Since I wrote this piece more about the situation has come to light….from a piece written in the Christian Science Monitor……..

Tunisia’s President Ben Ali, a dictator whose continued reign become untenable for the rest of the Tunisian elite in the face of massive public protests, has just resigned. Al Jazeera is reporting that Prime Minister Mohammed Ghannouchi has taken power as interim president.The Tunis airport has been closed due to the coup d’état/people power revolution/peaceful transfer of power/whatever it is that just happened. I’m guessing that if all this is well-received by the crowds on the streets in Tunis (which seems a safe bet) that the airport will soon reopen, at least in a limited way. The new government will be eager to show it’s addressing popular demands, that a military dictatorship to replace the Ben Ali dictatorship is not on the cards.

The voice of the people has been heard and action taken……give you any ideas?