Why Authoritarian Regimes Fail

A couple of things to remember about authoritarian regimes like China and Russia:

1. A strong, capable military isn't possible because a coup d'etat oft originates in country.

2. An economy ruled strictly from the top of the regime is the most demoralizing thing possible (all decisions are made at the highest levels of the regime, credit is taken by said regime, blame is delegated to any and everybody else). The wheels fall off because the economy is subjugated to the incompetence of the regime.

Authoritarian regimes are still dangerous because they will risk anything, that isn't theirs or themselves, in the process of failing.

 

A Bad Idea Called: Supply Side Economics

While I was in school, starting in the mid-sixties, factories were moving north to south trying to flee from unions...  When unions followed, the factories moved to Mexico (can you say, "maquiladora?")...  Then mainland, communist, China opened up to greedy capitalists and factories went there in droves.

All this to avoid the cost of employee wages and benefits, and to avoid the cost, taxes, to pay for the government to pick up the responsibility, and the tab.

It's called, "supply side economics," it means unregulated, highest profit margins, capitalism.  This proof that unregulated capitalism is feudalism  was pushed by Reagan republicans and neo-liberal (who are neither new or liberal) democrats.

Economies flourish when there are customers, reasonably compensated employees, who can afford to buy what businesses sell; 70% of the money spent into our economy.  The other 30% is spent into the economy by the government, often by issuing debt, when those who can afford to pay taxes lobby elected officials not to tax them.

United for ALICE is a place that studies working class folks who can't work enough hours, at multiple jobs, to afford to live indoors and eat (to say naught of the other of life's expenses).

It won't take till 2035 to fix this problem if we listen to, and allow them to do their jobs, professors (Senator) Warren and (Rep.) Porter.
 

 

Democrats 2022 to 2023, and Beyond...

 

Democrats had tremendous voter turn out in November 2022 and in Georgia on December 6^th, 2022. Still Hershel Walker received, a nearly competitive, large number of votes; Stacy Abrams did not win in GA; no statewide offices flipped red to blue in TX; NY gerrymandering flipped too many offices blue to red...

Democrats still have lots of work to do insuring consistent voter turn-out, stopping gerrymandering and codifying the ease of the eligible voters to cast their ballot.

Enjoy the qualified, good, Democratic election results of 2022, and then we get back to work in 2023 and beyond!

Why Government, Not Business, Provides Some Services

It is time for a relatively simple explanation of why government must do certain tasks and why all, who can, must pay taxes if said tasks are to be done well.

The business of business is profit; period. Any and every thing that needs be done, for as close to everybody as is possible, with little, to no, potential for profit must be done by government.

The Republican party (Qpublican after the insurrection of January 6^th, 2021) has adopted Grover Norquist's proposition that, “government must be shrunk till it can be drown in a bathtub,” has made them into the, “can't do party,” of these United States.

Education (infant child care, pre-K, K - 12^th grade, public trade schools, community colleges and universities; through post Doctorate) is expensive to accomplish well for everybody. There is no profit to providing these tasks, because providing for a well educated population produces no cash/profit (readily liquid assets). Business benefits by having a more capable work force drawn from a well educated populous; expands potential, business opportunities.

Basic research is also best done by government because beneficial research may not be recognized as useful in early to middle stages. Federally Funded Research and Development Centers have established, and continued, the USA as the innovation center of the world. Businesses availed themselves of that innovation; did not do it on their own.

Health care in the United States has most often been for profit; most expensive, least effective medical care/results of the most economically advantaged countries of the world: https://blueboomerhd.blogspot.com/2020/11/voting-in-your-own-best-interest.html

Transportation infrastructure (e.g.: roads, bridges, airports, seaports, etc...) is best done by government, because it too is expensive to do well and, once again, there is no profit. Businesses find easier and more efficient means to get there from here.

Texas has had two privately owned toll roads that both failed (declared bankruptcy) well within 2 years of opening to traffic. In an attempt to hasten profit the private companies cut corners in the facilities they constructed. TxDOT inherited millions of dollars of work necessary to bring the roads up to standard operating, safety requirements.

So, if someone tells you that you're paying too much in taxes, or not getting any benefit for your tax dollars, they are lying , or, they may have fallen prey to, are passing along, massive quantities of misinformation available from multiple sources (click on the link above for more/multiple sources of better information).

When someone says the quality/value of services rendered by government is lacking then eligible voters are not voting for better government representation; not communicating (briefly and politely) what is expected from their elected representatives.

For better, worse or indifference there is only one political party in these United States trying to do it's best for everybody: Democrats.

Vote, communicate and participate in our democratic republic to get what we deserve!

What To Do with Insurrectionists...

We now know that the Insurrection of January 6^th 2021 was planned in advance, and that some in the Secret Service, FBI, and other federal agencies, were aware of it beforehand. The Capitol could, and should, have been prepared like the Lincoln Memorial was during the previous summer's BLM gathering.

Problems in some federal agencies come to the fore.

If the first Impeachment of the orange menace hadn't been torpedoed, almost unanimously by the Qpublican party, the Insurrection, in total, might have been moot. The orange menace would have been removed from office; most probably couldn't have run for re-election.

All the legislators voting against Impeachment/Conviction, and personnel in the aforementioned federal agencies, abandoned their oath of office, “to protect and defend the Constitution.” They all should be subject to Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment and removed immediately, and permanently, from any office requiring allegiance to said oath.

Let's clear out the people who were complicit to, or directly involved in, the Insurrection of January 6^th 2021.

The Congress would still have the quorum needed to conduct the business of the US government: expanding SCOTUS and passing legislation (e.g., voting and civil rights acts passed previously in the US House, and encode into law that a woman's health issues are her own business, exclusively).

It's time to reclaim and restore the Democratic Republic, as defined in the US Constitution, that we are too close to losing.

VOTE!

Genetic Engineering Questioned

Humans are very new to the field of genetic research, and therefore should not be assumed to be accurate when they present results in genetic research and the resulting Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO) from the new fields of Genetic/Biological Engineering.

The paper, excerpted below, demonstrates the unreliable results of a major tool, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), broadly used in genetic research.

Author: Eran Elhaik, PhD. Population, medical, and evolutionary genomics. Associate Professor at the Department of Biology, Lund University, Sweden

Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is a multivariate analysis that reduces the complexity of datasets while preserving data covariance. The outcome can be visualized on colorful scatterplots, ideally with only a minimal loss of information. PCA applications, implemented in well cited packages like EIGENSOFT and PLINK, are extensively used as the foremost analyses in population genetics and related fields (e.g., animal and plant or medical genetics). PCA outcomes are used to shape study design, identify, and characterize individuals and populations, and draw historical and ethnobiological conclusions on origins, evolution, dispersion, and relatedness. The replicability crisis in science has prompted us to evaluate whether PCA results are reliable, robust, and replicable.

...We demonstrate that PCA results can be artifacts of the data and can be easily manipulated to generate desired outcomes. PCA adjustment also yielded unfavorable outcomes in association studies. PCA results may not be reliable, robust, or replicable as the field assumes. Our findings raise concerns about the validity of results reported in the population genetics literature and related fields that place a disproportionate reliance upon PCA outcomes and the insights derived from them. We conclude that PCA may have a biasing role in genetic investigations and that 32,000 - 216,000 genetic studies should be reevaluated...

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-14395-4.epdf?sharing_token=JsFQvV1XHQ32VCFO01Lx0dRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0NC2m7b48KT8vBDULceDDrRN7rfa5pS-W12xTv3GwLI6jSlyLwu8oc-3V7W7PODOtqYSr9y5yro5twkk5Tw6U4KxE46nfpdMzdNPRxeilBsUByTODdkiCcrqzW8jBF9G2o%3D

Introducing GMOs into the wild/world is akin to people creating and releasing invasive species into the environment...

What could possibly go wrong?

 

Democrats Need To Ditch the Kid Gloves

 

Democrats,

It is time to ditch the kid gloves, forever.

We, and our democratic republic, are under distinct and severe threat, because we play fair and nicely even though it has been demonstrated, time and again, that Re/Qpublicans will not do same.

There is no more, never has been, a good justification for the Senate's filibuster;

There is only one team seeking bi-partisan support, for anything, in the US and state legislatures... Time for us, Democrats, to stop also;

Seek to do what would increase our US House majority;

Establish a functional, simple majority in the US Senate;

Increase the number of Democrats holding elected offices in all the US states and territories;

etc, etc, etc...