Author: MichaelPellegrini

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President Biden Needs to Step Aside At Once

 

With the horrendous Supreme Court decision yesterday on trump’s immunity from prosecution, it becomes even more imperative that the Democrats win the next election.This is what we could end up with.

In the words of Justice Sotomayor, “the president is now a king above the law.” As she outlined in her dissent, hypothetical situations where the concept of immunity could apply include: ordering the Navy Seal Team Six to assassinate a political rival, organizing a military coup to hold onto power, and taking a bribe in exchange for a pardon. All these sorts of acts would be immune because they have their basis in the president’s official, core duties.

If trump regains the presidency, you can bet your bottom dollar he will explore all those different alternatives. And much more. I’m sure he sees the Supreme Court decision as an absolute green light for his most fanciful, royal ambitions.

The trump campaign has a much-publicized plan to purge all “deep state” civil servants replacing them with an all-MAGA workforce. So when implementing new policies, questions of constitutionality will likely never arise. I’m also sure that trump will also place loyal MAGA henchmen into key military positions. They learned from the mistakes they made in the first term. They won’t make those mistakes again. There won’t be any bureaucratic push back on anything they attempt. Making it worse, he knows where the levers of power are.

Truly, there won’t be any checks and balances on a second trump administration. There won’t be any adults into the room to tell them, “no you can’t do that because it’s illegal/unconstitutional.” Those are words trump will never ever hear in a second term. At least from any of his own people (and that includes the Supreme Court).

Making things even more critical, today there was a report in The Hill, Carl Bernstein: Sources say Biden’s debate ‘horror show’ far from a ‘one-off’.  If this is indeed true, that the Democrats need to mobilize at once to get President Biden to announce he will not run.

I’m a big supporter of President Biden. I think he’s been a great president within the limits possible considering the mess that he inherited from trump. My heart goes out to him. But it’s clearly time he stepped aside and let someone else run against trump. Someone who’s on their game and who has a better chance of winning.

This is an all hands on deck moment. Our democracy hangs in the balance. It’s less than two months to the convention. The Democratic Party must move quickly and decisively to find a new nominee if our republic is going to survive.

Do you really want a convicted felon (pictured above) as president? I think not.

 

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An Open Letter to President Biden

Dear President Biden:

I voted for you in 2020. I think you’re a good, honorable person and are eminently qualified to lead the country. I think you speak the truth. I think you’ve done a great job the last four years – within the limits of what’s possible after inheriting the truly gargantuan mess created by trump and the pandemic.

But I don’t think you can win this coming election.

The questions of your age and ability to perform the duties of president have been hovering over the campaign for most of the last year. Your performance in last Thursday’s debate confirmed everyone’s worst fears. You let trump run roughshod over you; you didn’t fact-check most of his horrendous lies; and you devolved into incoherence at several points.

Sure, everyone is allowed one bad night. And one bad debate doesn’t necessarily negate four years of your good work. But perceptions are everything.

By and large, the greater majority of people don’t care if you tell the truth, or if you know how to do the job. They’re interested more in appearances; they want a strong, forceful leader; stupid superficial things that don’t really bear on job performance. And they’re motivated by their own base self-interests.

Trump is an exceptionally gifted liar; clearly, he’s a pathological liar. He’s eminently believable and he’s promising everyone the moon. So in an era where most people get their news on social networks, YouTube, or from friends, trumps lies go unchallenged.

As stated earlier, one of the worst parts of the debate was that you didn’t fact check him; by your omissions, you de facto legitimized what he was saying.

This coming election Is probably the most consequential contest the nation has ever had. As you have suggested, it portends the potential demise of our democracy, if trump is elected.

Continue reading “An Open Letter to President Biden”

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Inslee’s plan for in-person school

Too little, and way too soon

On December 21, Governor Jay Inslee announced updated guidelines for reopening in-person classes at K-12 schools. Under the plan, counties with a 14-day average greater than 350 cases/100,000 population, and with positivity rates greater than 10% would be able to reopen. This new plan he says, is based on recent data showing dramatic drops in disease transmission when safety measures are put in place.

The following Friday, the Tacoma School District jumped on board, announcing limited classes for in-person learning starting January 19. Beginning with kindergartners in groups of up to fifteen students, the plan will expand over the course of the following month to include preschool and then later, first and second graders.

The key principles of the Governor’s new plan, are excluding sick people through screening, using cohorts, using social distancing, handwashing, wearing masks and a number of other now standard measures.

Missing from the Governor’s plan is mandatory coronavirus testing. There’s no requirement students/staff must provide negative test results before starting school initially. And there’s no requirement for surveillance testing during school. Testing under the plan, is voluntary when and if used; parents may opt out, at will.

This approach provides a stark contrast to schools which have successfully reopened for in-person learning.

One good example are New York State’s schools. The reopening plan developed under Gov. Andrew Cuomo provides that students must show a negative test result before being allowed in school. The plan also requires mandatory surveillance testing for 25% of the school community (students, teachers, staff) every week. Students failing to submit to testing are required to use remote learning, with very narrow exceptions. It should be noted their current positivity rate is about 6.1%. There are nearly 2.8 million students in New York’s K-12 schools. Continue reading “Inslee’s plan for in-person school”

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America at the Tipping Point

King Trump and the fall of the American Republic?

The tipping point for the Nazi takeover of Germany arguably occurred when President Hindenburg appointed Adolf Hitler as Chancellor.  This was the culmination of a long, arduous process the Nazis started in the 1920s.

In the years following the end of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles, the newly formed Weimar Republic was in shambles, reeling with the aftereffects of the war.  On the whole, the German populace viewed the loss of the war and the terrible terms of the treaty as a stinging, humiliating defeat.

Playing on that, the Nazis argued Germany had been stabbed in the back by the politicians who agreed to the treaty.  They portrayed the Weimer Republic as riddled with corruption and degeneracy, and led by Jews and Marxists – whom they blamed for everything.  They projected the idea that Germany was on the brink of a communist revolution and that Hitler was the only person who could solve these problems, and make Germany strong again. 

By July 1932, the Nazis had become the largest political party in Germany, amassing 230 out of 608 seats in the Reichstag.  On January 30, 1933, the tipping point, Hitler finally maneuvered Hindenburg into to appointing him Chancellor, achieving his long-held goal to lead Germany. 

About a month following, the Reichstag building was set on fire – possibly by the Nazis.  Seizing the opportunity, Hitler shrewdly blamed the communists, proclaiming the fire to be the prelude of mass terrorist attacks and an imminent communist revolution.  Dozens of communists were immediately rounded up and thrown in jail. 

In a bid to provide legal cover for the mass arrests and to expand his own power, the next day, Hitler succeeded in getting President Hindenburg to issue the Reichstag Fire Decree.  The decree suspended the people’s most basic rights, including the freedom of expression, the right to assemble and organize, and freedom of the press.  This was all necessary to ensure public safety.

On March 24, 1933, Hitler made his final power grab when the Reichstag passed the Enabling Act of 1933. This amended the German Constitution, giving him complete dictatorial powers.

Continue reading “America at the Tipping Point”

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Hazzard County, Tacoma

Boss Hogg Lives!

Okay, here’s the scenario: somewhere in a town probably deep down in the rural South, the politicians decide unceremoniously to dump part of the city’s utility system. The line given to the townsfolk, is that the utility system is losing money. This issue of losses is hotly contested, but the town fathers are able to stall off an independent audit to determine if the utility is really losing money. The only daily newspaper in town is owned by basically the same group of people that run the town – they’re all good ol’ boys – so it spouts a nearly constant stream of propaganda backing up what the town fathers say.  Feeling secure, the politicians plow right ahead.  There are questions, however.

Why, you ask yourself, would anyone want to buy a utility that’s losing money? So they can take the losses themselves, instead of the city? Obviously, this is altruism’s finest hour!  But then you remember that the person buying the utility is one of the group of good ol’ boys.  Armed with this thought, you have to assume it’s a no-brainer the utility must be making money hand over fist!  Otherwise no one would want to buy it.  The good ol’ boys don’t waste money on unprofitable businesses. It’s just not done.  And cooking the books to make it show a loss is so, so easy.

The move to sell the utility doesn’t really surprise anyone because the town’s politics are dominated by the good ol’ boys, and they often make decisions like this. This is not these politicians’ first rodeo.  

Where might something like this happen?  Right off the top, most people would think of Hazzard County, Georgia, with Commissioner Boss Hogg running the show. It’s a given that everything Boss Hogg does, profits himself or his friends. That’s Just the way he rolls. Everyone accepts this, because that’s just the way business is conducted in that small fictional southern towns.  Or so TV would have us believe.

Continue reading “Hazzard County, Tacoma”

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Privatizing Click is not the answer

The whole problem with Click! Network is that their management are idiots. They never have had any idea how to compete in selling broadband access. 

Click’s always controlled the wholesale prices that the ISP’s use to set their prices. They kept the wholesale prices higher than they should have been because they were trying to milk the bandwidth for all they could – trying to wring out every little last penny. And they always followed Comcast’s pricing rather than trying something innovative – like offering discounted service for low income, handicapped and seniors. And they always lagged behind in speeds, making it hard for the ISP’s to be competitive, which has also affected revenues overall.

The issue of finances that has been hotly contested. Because there’s never been an independent audit of Click’s finances, we really don’t have any idea whether it’s making or losing money. But if management had learned their product, and taken the initiative and been more imaginative in their pricing and bandwidth offerings, it certainly would’ve helped.

Examples of Click management’s stupidity are manifold. One good example is when Comcast upgraded its network to DOCSIS 3.0, it took Click three years before they caught up. In the mean time, the Click ISP’s were stuck selling a vastly inferior product at higher prices. Do you suppose that ever affected revenues? Looking back right to the start, I can document probably a half a dozen examples of where this exact same scenario played out over and over and over. But Click management never learned from their mistakes.

The attitude of Click’s management has always been that once they offered some particular speed package – say 12 MB/s – then that’s all that people would ever want. That’s an updated version of AOL’s supreme arrogance, when their CEO famously said, “56K is all the people will ever need.” We all know what happened to AOL.

Click management never had a clue of what was coming down the pike in terms of bandwidth and applications. And so they were always way late to the party with upgrades.  Time and again, they demonstrated a profound ignorance of the market they existed in.

Their cardinal sin: they did not know their product. Not at all.

Continue reading “Privatizing Click is not the answer”

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Happy Labor Day to us all!

Picketer's being beaten by police

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In a day and age when organized labor seems largely irrelevant to many, this is an appropriate time to stop and reflect on the gains made by unions in the past 100 years.

Although no one seems to remember now, some of the most basic protections we presently enjoy – like Social Security and Unemployment Insurance – came to workers courtesy of the push from organized labor. This package also includes the 40-hour workweek, the minimum wage, overtime, the child labor laws and much more, including some very basic things like the right to join a union and the right to strike. Most of this was enacted as parts of President Roosevelt’s New Deal legislation.

But none of these rights and protections were just handed to the workers, even if they were part of Roosevelt’s New Deal. People died to obtain these protections.

The years leading up to the New Deal – particularly the 20’s and 30’s – were a bloody, bitter time for workers. Strikes – where people died for their union beliefs – were commonplace.

Back in those days, the typical scenario was that the workers would go on strike or get locked out, and then the employers would hire scabs, and detectives (like the Pinkerton’s or the notorious Baldwin-Felts Agencies) to “protect” the scabs. Then the war was on.

The strikers were most often cast as “Commies” or communist-dominated in propaganda put out by the employers – the “Red Menace” was a very common theme. The Chamber of Commerce and other civic organizations usually backed the employers. Often, local citizen groups, augmented (or supplanted) by the hired detectives and backed by the local governments formed “posses” and took on the strikers in open warfare – all in the name of “civic virtue” (cleaning out the Red’s). Occasionally the National Guard even got into the act.

Good examples of this sort of open labor warfare include The Ludlow Massacre (1914), The Battle of Matewan (part of the West Virginia Coal Wars – 1920), the Battle of Blair Mountain (1921), The Herrin Massacre (1922), The Columbine Mine Massacre (1927), The Auto-Lite Strike of 1934, The Minneapolis Teamsters Strike (1934) and the 1934 West Coat Maritime Strike (which evolved into the West Coast General Strike of 1934).

Hundreds and hundreds of workers died in those years, fighting for even the most basic of protections.

Continue reading “Happy Labor Day to us all!”

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This is how democracy dies

A liberal’s long journey away from Barack Obama and the Democratic party

  By Michael Pellegrini

About seven and a half years ago following the 2008 elections, I wrote a blog post titled America: Disgraced then reborn.     I absolutely gushed about how happy I was at the election of Barack Obama. I was dead certain he would right all the wrongs caused by eight years of George Bush, and particularly, that he would make good on his pledge to end all our wars.

To me, implicit in that promise was ending the phony war on terror. A “war” that was nothing but a happy contrivance of the Bush administration.

Looking back to September 2001, George Bush was nine months into what was shaping up to be an uninspired, lackluster, one-term presidency. Then 9/11 happened.

Speaking unscripted in a press conference on September 16, 2001, President Bush said, “This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while. And the American people must be patient. I’m going to be patient…”

Bush’s advisers craftily seized the opportunity and came up with an absolutely brilliant idea: everyone knows a country will rally behind their leaders in wartime. So rather than simply finding the 9/11 perpetrators and bringing them to justice, instead, they made Bush’s war official and decided to declare a generalized “war on terror.”   This also facilitated other plans they had.

Continue reading “This is how democracy dies”

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America’s war against Islam

From a Muslim perspective, this whole “war on terror” has to look a whole lot like a “war on Muslims.”

We’ve invaded Iraq and Afghanistan. Innocent civilian deaths in the Iraq war – and that’s just innocent civilian deaths by themselves – run overall between an estimated 110,000 to over 600,000 lives. Can there be many people over there who haven’t lost a friend or relative to the Iraq war?

Life under Saddam Hussein was actually pretty pleasant for a majority of Iraqis. He was a secular Muslim. The Shia Muslim minority was terribly oppressed. But the Sunni majority had the good life.

We come in and topple Saddam, fire all the Ba’ath party members from the army and civil service positions, kill as many as 600,000 innocent people, install an unpopular puppet government, torture people, lock up people for years and years in Guantanamo without filing any charges or giving them any due process, steal their oil, plunder their economy. Is that the way you make friends and influence people?

To the Iraqis we must come across as a bunch of Nazis.

Continue reading “America’s war against Islam”

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Are you ready for the oligarchy?

The thing that disturbs me the most about this methanol/LNG mess is not the methanol or LNG per se.   Rather it’s that these issues bring home the hard, cold fact that while we were sleeping, there’s been a coup.   Our city’s been taken over by hostile forces. Tacoma and the United States are both well on their way to becoming oligarchies.

When people talk about the country becoming an oligarchy on the national level, it’s hard to grasp.   We still have our homes and jobs, the same programs are on TV. We’re going on a vacation to Yellowstone next year. Cousin Steve just got married and the wedding was fantastic!   On and on. In almost every ordinary way, things are the same now as they were 5-10 years ago.

As applied to the United States, the term oligarchy is an abstract; it’s intangible. Because of the overt normalcy, it’s really hard to come to terms with. “Yeah, America is an oligarchy, you say? Hey did you catch last night’s Mariners game?”

Continue reading “Are you ready for the oligarchy?”