January 6th 2021: A day that will live in infamy.

 

    The events of the last 24 hours have been both horrible and encouraging. The pathetic insurrection attempt by Trump followers to disrupt the certification of the election by congress was expected. The only explanation for the lack of strong police presence was that the president interfered with protecting the congress. Our country has been shamed by a deranged self obsessed person who sees only his needs in any transaction.  The fools who performed this insurrection will face consequences and he will abandon them as he has anyone he no longer needs. This was a planned action that probably dates to the time that the Attorney General Barr resigned (or before).  Video circulating of him with family and friends happy and excited to observe the looming chaos reveal the utter shallow and empty quality of the person and his family.

    The persisting failure of joint congressional leadership to counter his disruption has been discouraging but there were hopeful signs yesterday in the joining together to complete the process of certification, in the face of a mob trying to block it. The American Democracy has survived, barely, and needs major repairs, not just on the damage to the capitol building, which is symbolic. Some in the congress now realize the dangers the country faces, and will withdraw their support from his lies and incompetence. They will need to move forward to redefine their party.

    A remaining group of congressmen (and women)continue to support the lies and unreality of the Trump position in hopes of capturing his remaining supporters for their own political advantage. Trump's supporters deserve a voice in the country that does not exploit them and addresses their real needs, not their fantasies. None of the individuals who spoke to oppose the certification have any other interest but their own political future, and will betray these people again. 

    History will tell if this day was the harbinger of a period of repression and dictatorship in a former democracy which became a "banana republic", or whether there are enough individuals who value the opportunities inherent in democracy to protect and preserve it.  I hope to be one of the latter.

CHALLENGES FACING THE NEW ADMINISTRATION

Washington is totally broken.  Trump et al must be replaced and something done to repair the government.  Some of this will only come through voting in new members of congress.  And this can only happen effectively if the CITIZENS UNITED decision of the Supreme Court is overturned by new legislation and challenges.  The control of the political process by the wealthy is enabled by the Citizens United decision. (This was a case brought by xxx about financing a movie!)

COVID  The pandemic sweeping the country must be accomplished by a unified national plan integrated by each state including protective isolation practices,  and effective vaccine distribution.  The fantasy that vaccines alone will quickly end the pandemic must be dispelled or it will encourage risky behavior and only extend the problem. 

 ECONOMY The apparent illusion that we had an effective economy was destroyed by the covid pandemic.  It is worth taking a moment to understand this.  The major impact of covid is on close contact business:  travel, crowd events and theme parks, restaurants, in person malls and shopping,  etc.  Over half the work force was thrown into unemployment and has recovered only about 2/3rds.  Is this the basis of a long term valid economy?  We have become a country which spends its money on disposable consumer items,  streaming media,  and low caloric value foods.  The streaming world "saved" our entertainment,  but isolates us into fantasy worlds.  It is time to review the basis of the economy and make decisions that support new directions in employment and education.  Fighting China is a total waste of time.  Their giant labor pool encourages them to commit to manufacturing of consumer disposables and attempt to steal high tech knowledge.  We should focus on expanding and protecting our own skills and let them emphasize what the US has "off shored".  The tariff war was a good example of the stupidity of the current administration.

The reality is that the country is controlled by businesses that care nothing about the government or its integrity,  but only about their profits and the people and country will go down as a result.  They will blame it on Trump,  but Rome was overcome by the corruption within,  and could no longer defend itself.  This is how arrogant powerful countries always fail.

SECURITY  The fundamental assumption of US security has been based since the 1950s on nuclear power.  Attempts to limit new members to the "nuclear weapons club" have already failed and will continue to fail.  The only solution for nuclear weapons is a world wide monitored treaty for managing their production and control. The breaches of internet performed by Russia represent the new world threat emerging.  Interactive control and damage to essential infrastructure including military operations like drones are the new weapons and warfare.  And they impact noncombatants much more than traditional warfare.  The mentality of the US DOD and congress have not progressed to this understanding to the extent that some of our enemies have.  Countries with limited nuclear weapons will find other weapons faster.  US must be dealt with the whole internet security issue ASAP.

DISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH  The overall focus of the economy must change, but it must also address the mal-distribution of wealth.  The richest country in the world throws away the most food,  has the most unoccupied housing,  and the highest level of poverty and homelessness per capita.  This is crazy and builds a community of the "discarded" that can only lead to political instability.  How stupid can leaders be not to see the dangers in this and continue to facilitate laws that favor inequality??? The economy is threatening a worsening spread and free fall and the markets are ignoring this but will soon feel the effects of the pandemic and unemployment.  States are out of money and will be unable to provide the basic services that they must provide.  Demanding that the FED compensate this can only be temporary and long term deficits catch up with every country.  The tax base will fall apart.  During the 1930s the availability of labor due to unemployment led to the CCC and much infrastructure development was accomplished at affordable levels including the Golden Gate Bridge and Hoover Dam.

INSTITUTIONAL RACISM  The history of the US, along with most other European and some Asian nations includes development using slave labor.  (It also included "indentured servant labor" different in preserving personal identity).  The Civil War was fought partly to address resolving the use of slaves,  and ended with an apparent resolution of slavery that was quickly undermined in Reconstruction.  Waves of new immigrants in the 1800s and 1900s came to claim their place in the society, while the African American role remained unresolved. The 1960s appeared to be a new development in Black political presence with the voting rights act,  but it too has been undermined.  Electing a partly ethnic African president only served to highlight the conflict, and Black Lives Matter will continue to be a challenge for the country.

TWO PARTY SYSTEM The desire to find Red states and Blue states is a simplification that obscures other important issues.  Different regions have different regional objectives and needs and attempting to parse them to one party or the other is very difficult.  The US is a regionally differentiated multi-issue society trying to simplify the problems into a two party system rather than a parliamentary multi-issue party system.  The solution has been to have each party pick the regions and issues it wishes to support,  which is no solution at all.  A new approach to political organization is needed.  The recent election in GA shows that a simple RED/BLUE definition is not correct and a new political calculus must be developed.

POTUS continuing to contest and manipulate about the election.  The events of the last 24 hours have been both horrible and encouraging. The pathetic insurrection attempt by Trump followers to disrupt the certification of the election by congress was expected. The only explanation for the lack of strong police presence was that the president interfered with protecting the congress. Our country has been shamed by a deranged self obsessed person who sees only his needs in any transaction. The fools who performed this insurrection will face consequences and he will abandon them as he has anyone he no longer needs. This was a planned action that probably dates to the time that the Attorney General Barr resigned (or before).
The persisting failure of joint congressional leadership to counter his disruption has been discouraging but there were hopeful signs yesterday in the joining together to complete the process of certification, in the face of a mob trying to block it. The American Democracy has survived, barely, and needs major repairs, not just on the damage to the capitol building, which is symbolic. Some in the congress now realize the dangers the country faces, and will withdraw their support from his lies and incompetence. They will need to move forward to redefine their party.
A remaining group of congressmen (and women)continue to support the lies and unreality of the Trump position in hopes of capturing his remaining supporters for their own political advantage. Trump's supporters deserve a voice in the country that does not exploit them and addresses their real needs, not their fantasies. None of the individuals who spoke to oppose the certification have any other interest but their own political future, and will betray these people again. 

 The magnitude of all these problems is astounding.  The country and our leaders have let problems build up for decades in administrations of both parties.  These cannot be solved in a year or even one administrative term.  But there must be a start to addressing them.  Americans are good at problem solving when they work together and good at starting wars when they don't.

THE UNITED STATES IS A FAILED COUNTRY

This article in current Atlantic Monthly captures half the story:

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/what-trump-and-his-mob-taught-world-about-america/617579/

More important is what it taught America about itself. We have been lying to ourselves. If Americans want our country to be the fantasy we pretend that it is, we have a lot of work to do. For decades we have not lived the image projected by leaders and media. Now is the time for a reckoning and revision, or accepting that we have failed to realize the ideal "a country where all men are created equal" and that government "of the people, by the people, and for the people" HAS departed..

The mob that stormed congress was fomented by deranged leaders, and media promotion of conspiracy fantasies, but they were living in a country that has failed them and many others: 

This is a country in which income inequality has increased dramatically over the past decade to the point that there is little middle class left and expanding poverty and homelessness,  while a tiny fraction of the population gets enormously wealthy.  The true definition of a "banana republic".

Electing a partly ethnic African president activated the outpouring of persisting personal and institutional racism, and then the next president utilized this segment of society as a political stepping stone.  Black Lives Matter  issues were on full display when white domestic terrorists invaded the capitol and no significant police resistance was mounted.

In the previous election, citizens chose a reality TV fantasy president who voiced their anger and rage but is personally and intellectually incapable of leadership, exploits everyone for his personal gain and is unable to  acknowledge his own mistakes and failures, including the recent election.  

There is a long history of "pay to play government" at all levels in America, while leaders pretend it does not occur here and demean other "3rd world countries" for their graft and corruption.  America has been the go-to place for laundering money for decades with its "shell corporations" which have just recently been forced to reveal owners in a defense bill that Trump vetoed, and which WAS overridden.

The country is so dysfunctional that it was unable to manage a life threatening epidemic because so many don't want to give up their fun/freedom and because of its impact on the economy.  Leadership at many levels could not find a reasonable balance between saving lives and protecting economic security of the people.  And

Washington has become a "forbidden city".  A region where every sort of special interest goes to cash in on the government, i.e. taxpayers money, as facilitated by modern mandarins called "beltway bandits".  The excessive political role of the oil industry in political affairs has resulted in engaging America in two recent wars in the middle east with major destruction to the social, material and physical stability of the region,  with no significant benefit to our country.  This is the parallel of the wars Rome pursued which eventually led to its decline.

This is not a sudden change.  It is not clear when the government went off the rails, but the assassination of Kennedy was a beginning leading into the chaos of the country's response to the Vietnam war.  Nixon's efforts failed to stem the tide.  Carter was a saint, and saints have no role in politics.  The Reagan era brought an increased role of business interests, and the delusions of Republicans that this was the "golden age" because the Soviet Union was failing under its lack of leadership and the credit attributed to Reagan.  The Clinton presidency saw a bipartisan acceptance of "pay to play"   and increasing disregard for the middle class, despite the booming economy.  This is not a Republican Democrat issue, the Clinton's blurred that line.  It is about rich/poor and who is heard in the country.

The United States is a large geographical region with many subregions of special interests.  It would be difficult under any circumstances to govern and manage all the different interests.  This challenge encourages bureaucracy and Washington,  like China, Russia, and other very large governments, have enormous bureaucracies which ineffectively attempt to manage the people and interest groups.  Bureaucracy favors paranoid distrust and the emergence of social media has created a channel of communication for fanning this paranoid distrust. Social media did not create the paranoia, but it serves as a conduit for transmitting it rapidly.  Social media COULD be used to make government more transparent and bring citizens into more knowledge about the conflicts and negotiations being performed.  The major news media are now useless in this regard.  The major TV and paper news media are owned by large private corporations with strong interest in slanting the reporting and cannot perform the functions of the "third estate" reliably.