Monthly Archives: May 2018

Who Should Vote?

11 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Civics, Voting

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Last year the University of Pennsylvania did an unsurprising survey of 1,013 Americans. Only a quarter knew the three branches of government! Even worse is almost three hundred couldn’t name any. Your first thought should be if the United States is supposed to be the first democracy (maybe of the millennia) then we are definitely letting our ancestors and the founding fathers down.

I don’t know what percentage of the greatest generation voted but all I knew never missed a chance. When we have a high turnout vote, it isn’t even half of us. Sometimes it’s in the teens!

Why is the key? When AARP members went to school, we had a civics class and had to pass a test on the Constitution. I still remember the basics but I do not know many of today’s cabinet. There are twice as many today than we had in the 1960s. Somewhere afterwards schools stopped teaching civics. Is that the reason for later generation’s ignorance? Is that why voting and knowledge has dropped.

Good news for Illinois. The schools are mandated to teach civics (Morris will teach a full semester.) to the class of 2020. The question is will it be the idealized version that never existed or the real government. Will it involve dark Monday, lobbyists, campaigns, national parties, organizations, political foundations and all the other real parts of the three branches?

Is it better to teach the truth and hope they will vote to improve the situation or let them remain ignorant of real life? Should people vote if they are clueless and ignorant as many voters are or know the reality of the system and not vote?

Diversity

11 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Gender, Racism, Women

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I remember when diversity meant a different color, or race. Now it means a different gender. Companies are trying to go along with this latest fashion by bringing women into upper management and boardrooms. I worked with women for many years and each had an ideocracy just like all the men I worked with. Some men and women I worked with were trying to do a job over their capability but I found that more women were working below their capability. If they were in my command structure they were promoted and paid equally to a man doing the same job.

I disagree with promoting a person no matter their race or gender if they are not capable of doing the job. Not everyone has the mindset to be in a supervisory role. Many companies are promoting women to upper management who had little or no experience in lower management. They are being put on corporate boards just because its fashionable.

Promoting people for any reason other than their capability is wrong for the organization and for the person. General Motors CEO has over thirty years in the company and is highly respected. Several others like the former Yahoo CEO did not have the ability. They were put into the office because they were women. Many men have failed as CEO, some disasterly. Doing a good job has nothing to do with gender, race, or religion. The main factor is training and experience. Just because a person can run one business doesn’t mean they can run another, no matter their gender or race.

Clancy Drained the Swamp

11 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Government, Politics, President Trump, Uncategorized

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In Tom Clancy’s Book, Executive Orders, he imagined what would happen if the President, Cabinet, Supreme Court, Joint Chiefs, and all the members of Congress were killed. Clancy forgot to kill off the lobbyists who are the real power. They spread millions of dollars and write many of the laws Congress votes on. The Supreme Court’s decision on Citizen’s United allows millions in “Dark Money” (unregistered and hidden) to find its way into pockets, campaign chests, and political organizations.

Clancy did not write how such an event would affect the billionaires who currently control our three branches of government. In the book, Clancy proposed the people who would run for Senator might hate it so much one or two terms would be all they could stand. Of course, each Governor would appoint the Representatives for that state so they would be political. Think of it, no existing empires to control new people so it would have to start all over again.

Trump’s swamp is real but the first thing he did was to deepen it by doing away with the ethics rules. Lobbyists and lawyers who fronted for special interests were chosen for cabinet posts and under secretaries.

Before the reader thinks the swamp is only in the Administration, think about how a retired high school coach and Speaker of the House can still be wealthy after paying three million to a blackmailer. When they retire, high paying jobs in banks, consulting corporations, and others awaits them assuming they voted right. Those in the Administration get offers in the same places.

The Bad Ole Days

11 Friday May 2018

Posted by in Climate Change, Coal Mining, Environment

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I remember driving I-80 across the southern end of Lake Michigan’s industrial corridor without car air conditioning. We rolled up the windows, closed the vents, and took as few breaths as possible. The 1970s air was so bad we couldn’t believe people lived in the area. Coal plants and steel plants darkened the sky and fouled the air with particles that coated everything.

The EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt used to be Oklahoma’s Attorney General and sued the EPA several times for the fossil fuel companies that put lots of money into his campaign chest and speeches. Now he is running his most hated agency and has the power to cut the regulations for his fossil fuel friends want. Under the guise of creating jobs, Pruitt is, has and will cut regulations on coal fired plants, steel mills, and oil refineries. The cuts will maybe save a few jobs in those industries while polluting the air and water the regulations had cleaned.

Coal fired plants scheduled to close because of the cost of emission controls may now stay open. The Navajo five-unit generation plant will now stay open making the air over the Grand Canyon Park stay hazy.

A few years ago we talked with the Rangers of the Cumberland Gap National History Park about the wooded “mountains” in and around the park. They said the tops would be cut off, dumped into the valleys, damming them up until they break, and flood the downstream homes with mud and acid…all of this for a few feet of coal about 50 feet below the top. Pruitt is turning the clock back on mountain topping, too.