Supreme Court Nominee Kavanaugh
September 17, 2018
I have reviewed some of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s judicial decisions; I’ve read some of his legal opinions; and I listened to some of the testimony he gave to the Senate Judiciary Committee in early September.
My limited research led me to conclude that Judge Kavanaugh supports highly subjective views on the 2nd Amendment; on women’s reproductive rights; and on the executive power of the presidency.
Judge Kavanaugh’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee shed new light on his published positions, as well on his devotion to President Trump and Trump’s political agenda.
Judge Kavanaugh is quite personable and well-spoken, yet I believe his positions are not in keeping with the mores of American society. His responses to many of the difficult but seemingly fair questions from members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were evasive and ambiguous.
Kavanaugh was nominated by President Donald Trump in July 2018, drawn from a carefully vetted list of conservative jurists compiled by the Federalist Society, following Trump’s campaign promise that his judicial nominees would all be picked by the Federalist Society, an ultra-conservative legal organization.
Our nation is currently at a crossroads, possibly at or near a similar state which preceded the Civil War.
It is not slavery that divides us today. What divides us today is petty political divisiveness, exacerbated by special interest groups which operate behind the curtain, seeking to gain economic and political power over their opponents.
Our next Supreme Court Justice ought not to be an ultra-liberal or ultra-conservative individual. People who lean heavily left or right might attempt to institute abrupt changes to our legal order.
Abrupt change is both dangerous and disruptive, and has the potential to create political paralysis, or worse.
We recently began to hear talk of the ‘Deep State’ – an invisible but powerful alliance of career bureaucrats; officials who sit in powerful positions; and who serve through multiple presidential administrations.
Candidates for elected positions in the U.S. seem to often campaign on the abrupt and transformational changes they will institute on “Day One.”
Conspiracy theorists whisper innuendo accusing career public servants of creating obstacles to enact abrupt change, turning career public servants into natural enemies of those officials who are elected on their “Day One” promises.
Conspiracy theorists whisper innuendo accusing these career public servants of creating obstacles to enact abrupt change.
Career public servants often advocate for research and planning; for using historic data and experience to predict future outcomes; for upgrades to systems and infrastructure to improve data security and data integrity.
In the end, Presidents come and go, every 4 years, or so. Supreme Court justices serve a lifetime appointment.
Supreme Court justices should be politically neutral, above the fray of partisan politics. The future of our nation is at stake.
Change is both necessary and inevitable. Abrupt and unplanned change could result in a good outcome; history tells us that it is much more likely to result in catastrophic result.
“We Fed an Island”
September 15, 2018
While U.S. President Trump continues to blame the people of Puerto Rico and their elected local leadership for delays, inefficiencies and various failures in the response to the aftermath of Hurricane Maria (2017), Trump is lavish with praise for the wonderful response by his administration.
“I think that Puerto Rico was an incredible, unsung success,” Mr. Trump said. “I actually think it is one of the best jobs that’s ever been done with respect to what this is all about.”
Meanwhile, other sources do not agree with President Trump’s assessment.
One of the true unsung heroes involved in the Island’s recovery from Hurricane Maria is José Andrés, a chef and restaurateur who helped organize others from the food industry to form a veritable army comprised of both professionals and volunteers to feed residents, medical professionals and other disaster response workers.
A year after the initial response to Maria began, José Andrés has released a book reflecting on his experiences and lessons learned from the disaster response.
This article from the Washington Post describes his passion and introduces the book in a manner I wish I was able:
Labor Day Reflections
September 2, 2018
Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is an outcome of the U.S. Labor Movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It is an annual national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.
The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. It didn’t take long for the federal government to recognize it (1885), and it became a national holiday in 1894.
The inspiration of Labor Day is closely tied to both the roots of Capitalism and the emergence of Labor Unions in the U.S.
In 1983, the first year for which union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1 percent and there were 17.7 million union workers.
By 2017, the union membership rate had declined to 10.7 percent, and – most alarmingly – union representation of public-sector workers (34.4 percent) had become more than five times higher than that of private-sector workers (6.5 percent).
The origin of Capitalism as economic system assumed that private individuals or families who directly invested in (and directly took on the risks of loss) would own the means of production, distribution, and thus ensure a free and fair market for goods and services: They had real skin in the game.
Relying on the theories that: (1) people (consumers) are rational and will seek maximum utility from their economic actions; (2) information is transparently available to all who participate in the economy; and (3) markets are self-correcting; the concepts of Capitalism are compelling to most people when contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.
Worker exploitation was one of the early criticisms of the Capitalism model. The Labor Movement in the U.S. was instrumental in creating a buffer (safeguard) to help ensure a safer workplace, fair wages and reasonable hours and benefits. The Labor Movement was enabled by Labor Unions.
Today’s version of Capitalism has morphed into ownership of corporations by passive investors (mutual funds, pension funds, venture funds, etc.) which seek maximum current ROI with little or no regard to sustainability or externalities.
The executives who are charged with achieving the expectation of the passive investors are “hired guns” who begin with no skin in the game, yet who often are rewarded with stock options when short-term outcomes are positive.
In 1978, the average CEO earned about 30 times as much as the average worker. U.S. Census data tells us that the average income for U.S. households was $17,730, pegging average CEO income at $531,900.
In just 40 years, statistics from 2017 indicate that CEOs in the 350 largest companies in the U.S. are earning over 300 times as much as the average worker (actually, 312:1).
A recent survey by Glassdoor found that the median salary for U.S. employees is $51,272, implying median CEO compensation at nearly $16 Million.
There is no rational explanation for the explosion of the CEO to Worker compensation ratio. It seems to reflect a total lack of oversight by those individuals who have been elected to represent the interests of the American people.
Current economic conditions ought to raise a red flag to our elected officials that our nation has navigated very close to a Feudalistic System which is on track to implode and to destroy the very notion of what is described in the Declaration of Independence.
Labor Day seems like an appropriate time to pause and reflect on what seems to be an egregious obstacle to the healthy future of our American society.
walrus51 