Praying Mantis

Many voters ... disillusioned with politicians and how they seem to shed their morality as they progress through their years in office ... believe that this problem can only be solved by limiting the number of terms candidates can be in office.

Politicians being politicians, I doubt that term limits would work ... since no law is ever written by lawyers in such a way that it can’t be subverted by another higher-priced lawyer.

So is there a solution to this moral conundrum?

May I suggest the following law be enacted ... derived from how the female praying mantis rewards her much smaller male paramour? After mating this large female insect bits off the head of her male partner as he is smoking his post-coital cigarette. 

So this “Mantis” law will require any politician ... Republican, Democrat, Independent, Socialist or Greenie ... who has screwed his/her constituent voters ...  to be immediately decapitated ... in the public square ... from which there is no appeal.

Maybe this is too lenient?


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Obvious Truth

Politicians with appealing personalities have unfortunately learned that they need not be right to get elected. For many of them, honesty and a stalwart character seem also to be in short supply. 

Afterward: Is this why a politician with a sandpaper personality might be incented to make better decisions and implement better policies?


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E.T.

An extraterrestrial was sent to Earth on last February first as an emissary from the Council of Worlds to decide if the Earth was to be invited for membership. After a short period changing its appearance and learning all the languages, it spent its remaining time visiting most of the inhabited areas of this globe ... but concentrating on the biggest economic power, the United States.

This information gatherer found multiple forgeries in all disciplines painted over to appear as masterpieces ... while actual truths were being ridiculed into submission. It uncovered prancing hypocrisy, preening vanity, indulgent lust, ostentatious wealth, manufactured realities, rampant crime, self-serving politicians, unscientific science and a destructive media.

After six Earth months, it left this morning on the UFO trolley to go back and file its report ... shedding green tears and shaking its head in disbelief.

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Clouding Minds

In my childhood, there was a radio show called “The Shadow,” a crime-fighting series starring the character Lamont Cranston who had once learned from a Yogi priest in India “the ability to cloud men’s minds so they could not see him.” (Since all that you knew of the shadow was his voice, this was a perfect premise for a radio drama.) Anyhow, being effectively invisible was the way that Lamont Cranston found ways to defeat the bad guys (back then there were no bad gals. Now, we know differently.)

Unfortunately lefty politicians and media types listened to this series and put this talent to use ... wittingly bending the psyches of we the unwitting American public ...  to their partisan ends. They have done a very effective job of clouding our minds.

It’s time for some sunshine.

Haircuts

Let’s face it ... despite being generally prohibited, people are getting haircuts ... particularly politicians and TV personalities ... and personal make-ups too. Even though the lockdown specifically forbids it in New York and DC, it is obvious by the coiffed and made-up appearances of many TV interviewers and interviewees ... that the shag has been shed and the pasty appearance fleshified. After all, its been three months of shutdown and no one on TV looks like a 1960’s hippie dippie.

Today’s Poser

“That little girl” Kamala Harris endorses Joe Biden

Just because many politicians switch their positions and go with the apparent winner, does this mean that they are opportunists?

Human Nature

Life is full of trade-offs. One stays another 15 minutes on the exercise bike in order to work off last night’s dessert. Or, one spends an extra $10 to drive to work instead of taking the bus in order to listen to the drive-time news.

And trade-offs are even more complex when weighed by governments. Can citizens tolerate much higher utility bills in order to reduce the use of fossil fuels to generate electricity? Or can road maintenance be short-changed so that retired pensioners can continue to be paid?

These are economic trade-offs ... but there are also social trade-offs. Can abortion be encouraged at the cost of having to hype immigration to maintain a nation’s population? Or, more topical, can a city insult its minority population with a stop-and-frisk policy in order to save many of their lives and many more wounded? Would one rather be insulted or shot? Strangely, today, many politicians maintain that their minority populations prefer the latter.

So, kind reader, when one sees political trade-offs being made, be they economic or social, that seem illogical ... one can assume that there are other motivations beneath the surface that are influencing these silly decisions.

Such is human nature.

Lawyers

After listening to too many hours of the convoluted legal back and forth in the Trump impeachment trial, it seems clear to me that most law schools have neglected to require a course entitled “Occam’s Razor.” (It often appears that lawyers, particularly those who are politicians, think their job is to complicate things.) I suppose that the reason for such an educational oversight might well be that it would short circuit the legal profession’s reason for being.

Reality Check

Life was so much simpler when we believed that the world actually worked the way the media and the politicians assured us it did. 

Today’s Poser

How can many politicians put their own self-interest ahead of those of their constitutes, their country ... and even the world they would be leaving for their children and grandchildren?

TV Ads

Chances are quite good that, if you buy something you see advertised on TV, you will be disappointed. And the more times you see this item or service advertised, the greater will be your mistake. After all, ads cost money ... and more ads cost more money ... meaning the advertiser needs to up the price of the product or service to pay for these ads.

I make it a habit generally to avoid buying things I see on TV ... including politicians who inundate us with misleading, self-inflating ads.

Not So Obvious Truth

Correlation does not imply causation ... see: Fast Company Article. A lesson lost on many climate scientists and politicians.

Save Us!

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio

Politicians’ ability to talk a good game is too often inversely proportional to their performance in office. A case in point:

Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City went on Tucker Carlson’s show last night to try to resurrect his presidential campaign by warning of how so many people will be thrown out of work by the growth of automation. Like a typical politician, de Blasio had only tepid suggestions on how to counteract this trope. And he had no real answer when Tucker asked, if so many jobs are soon going to disappear, why we are letting so many low-skilled workers enter our country illegally every year?

Now, calling de Blasio an idiot is easy, but somehow experience tells us that this constructed panic over robots taking our jobs is not the lesson we should be taking from history. Robots have been around for 65 years, yet despite this, we have foolishly exported millions of jobs to Mexico and China. Still, the United States unemployment is near the lowest in history ... 3.7%. And this low rate would be even lower if Trump could persuade US manufacturers to return home.

Precisely what will occur to take up the possible employment slack due to automation I can’t exactly predict. But I am fairly certain that accommodations will occur — work week changes, work day duration reductions, more people working from home, service expectation changes. e.g.s, package delivery services, Uber, better healthcare services, leisure-time services, Grubhub, etc,) ... all of which improve our quality of life ... while providing jobs.

So, Mayor de Blasio, I  doubt that your hail-Mary pass will save your campaign and your attempt to ruin the United States like you are ruining the Big Apple.

Obvious Truth

The American people have a certain tolerance for hanky-panky and misfeasance in our politicians ... just as long as such politicians first love our country and strive to do their very best for us.

LIcense to Lie

Being a politician means that you have an absolute license to lie without recriminations. — Anon.

Mind Boggling

“Ignorance is curable, stupidity is forever.” — Robert Heinlein

It is not just Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, the abject stupidity exhibited by many politicians is mind boggling. — Anon.

Race to the Bottom

Can you recognize the announced Democrat candidates?

Unfortunately, politics has a basic flaw ... being often it’s a race to the bottom. Throughout history, politicians who have promised the voters something for nothing have invariably had an advantage in any elections. — Anon.

Moral Relativism

A liberal friend asked me a question this weekend, “Is Trump dirty?” My answer was “probably.” My reasoning was based upon the fact that, as a successful skyscraper builder in major metropolitan areas, Trump had to deal with many unsavory characters, seedy union bosses, greedy contractors, corrupt politicians and building materials suppliers (many concrete companies are mafia controlled) ... therefore he couldn’t help but be somewhat sullied in the process. But was he any shadier than almost any politician you can name  ... including the Clinton crime family? I sincerely doubt it. And unlike the Clintons, Obama and many other polluted pols, I have no doubt about Trump’s love and loyalty to the United States.

And so I expect some mud in Mueller’s Trump witch-hunt report whenever it comes out. But I also expect no smoking gun regarding Russian collusion or obstruction of justice. The dirt, to whatever degree, will be revealed by Michael Cohen and the Southern District of New York prosecutors delving into Trump’s earlier business deals ... for which he can’t be impeached, but besmirched nevertheless. I have no idea whether any of the short cuts Trump took as a builder are felonies. It will all depend on the quality of legal advice he got during that period. But, in any case, it will have to wait until he leaves office and well may be mitigated by other politicians scrambling to cover their own dirty deeds.

Yes, in my dotage I’ve slipped into moral relativism. I am even regretting my sanctimony in condemning Richard Nixon in my salad days. My measure now is much broader when rating presidents. I ask what do they do to benefit America ... and do they put our interests ahead of their own personal ambitions and greed. I think maybe the only truly “squeaky clean” president we have had in my lifetime was Jimmy Carter... and you saw what that got us.

Obvious Truth #42

There seems no limit to the pettiness, mendacity and self-serving behavior that most politicians and government bureaucrats can and often do display. President Trump’s biggest flaw is that he evokes this type of despicable behavior on the part of his political opponents ... instead of inspiring them to reach down for their better 1/10th.

Hell’s Hell

Politics is a very slimy business — two examples:

- It is beginning to appear that Mueller may not issue his long-expected report or that the report, if released, will be a wet fart ... see: NBC Article. This report was meant to show how extensively Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to win the presidency in 2016. No such evidence has been uncovered or manufactured in this two year witch hunt ... a witch’s hunt which increasingly appears to be meant to cover up for the widespread sleazy illegality in Obama’s DOJ, FBI and CIA.

- The rescue package that a joint committee of Congress put together to avert another government shutdown over the border wall is full of vindictive Pelosi  “land mines” as Trump calls them. Not only is the wall funding offer a paltry $1.375 billion instead of the $5.7 billion requested ... but it also specifies that this border barrier can only be of an older (ineffective) design; all new wall building must be in the Rio Grande valley; localities can override any attempts to build a wall ... and it authorizes $12 billion to be given to the Central American triangle countries who supply most of the welfare “dreamers” who are flooding our open borders ... see: National Review Article. This is like curing a cold with a case of typhus.

Political operatives, when they die and they invariably end up on Hell, are quickly shuffled off to an even more odious punishment — Hell’s Hell — where they are greeted by many of their buddy journalists.