Welcome to 2025

 My motto for the new year is the serenity prayer:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
and Wisdom to know the difference.

Poly Protection Landmark

Yesterday (December 19, 2017) a measure extending protection due to relationship structure passed by a unanimous vote in the Berkeley City Council. Berkeley City Council is where domestic partnership was first passed and now marriage equality is the law of the land. This law will extend legal protection to sexual minorities (including polyamorous and other people) not covered by existing laws in that city. This is a landmark law and we hope to extend this to other cities and jurisdictions and to add this to the definition of a protected class*. How people love should not impact their housing or employment opportunities.

* Protected classes are characteristics a person has, under the law, that cannot be the reason for discrimination or harassment. 

Commitment to non-violence

As we enter a period of public protest, and counter protest, both sides need to both show restraint not to let tempers get to them and to be committed to non-violence. Protest is not disloyalty. Protest is part of the process of American democracy. That is why our constitution includes a bill of rights. Take the right to peacefully assemble and protest away and you have killed everything this country stands for. For America to be America the right of citizens to protest has to remain and be respected – by both sides.

This is far from over! There are going to be a lot of protests ahead. There already has been violence and hate speech on both sides. If we do not condemn hate speech and violence on BOTH sides there is a real danger that this could evolve from passionate conversation to civil war.

One trend I have been seeing is a process of dehumanizing those we disagree with on these issues. There are bullies on both sides. That does not mean everyone from one side or the other are bullies. If you look at history, when people dehumanize the people they disagree with, the outcome often is not pretty.

It's okay to grieve

Click on image above to view video

It's okay to grieve the tragedy that Trump's election as President of the United States represents to many millions of Americans. How I felt when I woke up on the morning of 11/9 (the day after the election) can best be compared to how I felt on the morning of 9/11.

Before 11/9 Racism, misogyny, intolerance of sexual minorities and xenophobia seemed to be on the decline in America. It was like this dangerous monster was being chained up in the corner, still dangerous but chained. After 11/9 it is like the monster has been set free.

It is like waking up and finding the America you loved and believed in, was overnight occupied by a malevolent army – supported by a minority of the American people.

Take Time For Self Care

It's okay... Cry, wallow, watch garbage TV, eat pot brownies, do what you have to do. Remember you have a right to feel whatever you feel. Anger, sorrow, depression, fear... The whole range! Getting it out is good. If we bottle our feelings up they will just come out anyway, perhaps in inappropriate ways.

Do what you need to do to be ready. The time will come to set aside our grief. We are going to have to have the mental space for what comes next, forming the resistance.

The Political Tragedy of 2016

The Great American Political Tragedy of 2016

Like many progressives I think we have had a huge political tragedy in this country. I believe a lot of people are going to be victims of that. In my opinion it was very undemocratic and yes, I feel anger – among other emotions.

This is democracy?

In any other democratic country this would not be an issue. The majority should select the leader. That's the way "We the People" is supposed to work in a democracy. The American presidential election process is different. The process is broken. It is broken when twice in 16 years a president, chosen by a minority, is forced on a majority, because of the electoral college, a process created to protect slavery. In my opinion that is not democracy.

But, Trump won!!!

Yes, he did. He was lawfully selected. But, that "victory" is nowhere near fair and square. Trump used dirty tricks that would have made Nixon blush!

Those liberal are just "crybabies"

Crybabies, for protesting? Protest is part of the process of American democracy. That is why our constitution includes a bill of rights. This is far from over! "They" may soon control the presidency, the senate, the house and maybe even the supreme court but the right to peacefully assemble, speak and protest is still protected by the constitution.

Take that right away and you have killed everything this country stands for. For America to be America the right of citizens to protest has to remain and be respected.

Is the US a banana republic?

"Banana Republic." -- A banana republic is a commercial enterprise for profit by collusion between the State and favored monopolies. In a banana republic the government is unaccountable to its nation, the country's private sector–public sector corruption operates the banana republic, thus, the national legislature usually are for sale, and function mostly as ceremonial government.

Our country is a banana republic. When you have 400 people in this country with more wealth than half the population and the government giving handouts to the wealthiest members of our society in the form of unprecedented tax cuts while at the same time cutting services to the most needy, it is hard for me to come to any other conclusion.

My opinion on the Federal Budget Mess of 2011

There is an old saying, if you tell a lie long enough some people will believe it. Apparently, that's what is going on in Washington. If you read Paul Krugman's post, "the G.O.P. plan turns out not to be serious at all. Instead, it’s simultaneously ridiculous and heartless." Krugman goes on to say:

Republicans have once again gone all in for voodoo economics — the claim, refuted by experience, that tax cuts pay for themselves.

What does voodoo economics mean? It's a term used by none other than George H. W. Bush in reference to President Ronald Reagan's economic policies, which came to be known as "Reaganomics". Karl Case & Ray Fair, Principles of Economics (2007), p. 695 pointed out:

The extreme promises of supply-side economics did not materialize. President Reagan argued that because of the effect depicted in the Laffer curve, the government could maintain expenditures, cut tax rates, and balance the budget. This was not the case. Government revenues fell sharply from levels that would have been realized without the tax cuts.

The basic issue in a recession, like we are seeing now, is a shortage of money. This leads to downward pressure on incomes and prices as money becomes more valuable. People (and corporations) who have money don't spend it, they hoard it, thus people (families) who need money to pay bills can't get it.
This continues the downward spiral. What does not go down, however, is debt.
Folks are worried about inflation, but the greater worry is deflation. According to Wikipedia, "In economics, deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. Deflation occurs when the annual inflation rate falls below 0% (a negative inflation rate)." Wikipedia goes on to say, "From a monetarist perspective, deflation is caused primarily by a reduction in the velocity (spending) of money and/or the amount of money supply per person."
As people's income is reduced, a point comes when folks (families) just walk away from debt. People will feed their kids before they feed the banks. You can't get blood from a turnip.
If you think the mortgage crisis was bad, just wait until families start defaulting on massive amounts of consumer debt in great numbers.
When people (and corporations) with money won't spend out of fear; someone has to spend, that someone has to be the government. The government is the spender of last resort.
In my opinion, the risks of not spending are greater than the risks of spending. This is the worst time possible for massive reductions of government spending. We need to tax the people (and corporations) who have money and feed it into the economy in ways that helps the families that are at most risk of defaulting stay on their feet.
In a nutshell: The Republican plan will drag our nation into the gutter.

I agree with Krugman

Paul Krugman, like me, is a liberal, but that's not the only reason I like him. I actually think he is right. The Government has to be the spender of last resort. You can't save your way out of a depression, you have to spend. Spending is the only way to create jobs. That is exactly what we did in World War 2. From an economics point of view, WW2 was a massive government jobs program. On his blog Krugman writes:

A spending freeze? That’s the brilliant response of the Obama team to their first serious political setback?

It’s appalling on every level.

It’s bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment. [Read More]

In my opinion World War 2 may have ended the effects of the depression, but it was the New Deal programs of President Franklin D. Roosevelt that started the recovery. This recovery, I think, would have been much further along had not a new conservative coalition caused a rollback of the New Deal policies in early 1937, which caused a setback of the recovery. A setback that it took a war to set right. In my opinion Obama's spending freeze is another such setback. Hopefully it will not take another World War to set things right.