Shades of Vlad III

Yesterday, Donald Trump continued his practice of policy-by-tweet.  He put out into cyberspace a design for a steel slat barrier that he proposed as an alternative to a wall at our southern border.

Shades of Vlad III, also known as Vlad the Impaler ...

The Cost of a Government Shutdown

In about another 6.5 hours, American taxpayers and the American economy may incur a deficit of as much as $6.5 billion a week.  That's 6.5 billion, every week, until the shutdown ends.

Or, as Standard & Poors put it in an estimate they did about a year ago, there will be blood.

Food Stamp Queen Redux

The Trump Administration has floated plans to cut back on SNAP, that is, on food stamp, benefits.

Did we really expect anything else?  Almost every Trump policy has been insensitive.  In response, I'm reproducing below most of a post I did on this topic about three years ago, for the blog of the United Steel Workers.

The instinct of some to condemn SNAP participants as freeloaders or criminals is troubling.  I’m neither.  I have a Master’s degree in Computer Information Science.  I taught for over 20 years at various institutions of higher education.  The lack of a doctorate cost me jobs, though, and now causes me to have to rely on food stamps to supplement my income.

Despite millions of SNAP participants having stories like mine, we’re seeing a trend.  When the poor or middle class object to preferential treatment for the rich, it's called class warfare.  But when the very-well-to-do refer to food stamp recipients as welfare queens, it’s okay.

Caricatures of food stamp phonies created by conservative media are bogus.  Here’s the reality.  On average, an individual receives about $133 per month in food stamps.  That works out to about $4 per day.  As the Baltimore Sun put it, Blow it on a frappuccino, and that's one less day's food.

Any government action that discourages fraud [or waste] is, of course, worthwhile.  But there's no evidence SNAP is out of control.  It helps feed more than 40 million Americans at an annual cost of $64 billion, or about $1,600 per person per year.  That’s hardly exorbitant.

It Can't Come Soon Enough

About a week ago, I used something like the sample program below to illustrate counting down to a possible government shutdown.  Today, I'll use the same technique to illustrate an even more dangerous situation.

Via tweet this morning, our Commander in Chief instituted a radical change in U. S. foreign policy in the Middle East.  Specifically, he announced to the world, against the advice of almost every significant member of the administration's national security staff, that our troops would leave Syria, because we have defeated ISIS ... during the Trump Presidency ...

Yes, he claimed credit for that.  Seems he doesn't care that it's not accurate.  Nor does he understand that pulling U. S. troops out of the civil-war-torn country could result in an humanitarian crisis well beyond those the region has already experienced.

So why a countdown again? 14 days from today, Democrats will take over the House of Representatives, and the Committees that body includes.  In particular, the Intelligence and Armed Services Committees will have something to say about this most recent aberrant policy move.

 for (int i = 14; i > 0; i--) std::cout << i << " Days to the Dems! ";

This new for loop counts down from 14 to 1.  If you have access to a C++ compiler, try the code; it works.  Its output represents a point in time where sanity can again have a role in American foreign policy.

Hocus Potus :-))

In the midst of the shrillness and chaos that constitute the current administration, one is grateful to find lighter moments.

Some adherents to the Wiccan religion have objected to Donald Trump's ongoing use of the term witch hunt to refer to the investigation of his campaign being conducted by Robert Mueller.  In an interview with the Louisville Courier-Journal, Ann Hardman, a high priestess of the Kentucky Wiccans said I am incensed with this term. And I have been ever since he did it the first time. It’s insulting; it should be eliminated from the vocabulary. In some ways it’s like the N-word. 

Hardman isn't alone in those sentiments.  The president’s frequent use of the term has ticked off witches around the country. Recently, the Daily Beast reported that some witches have even cast spells (known as binding spells) on Trump.

From their spells to the Universe's ears ...

The I Word

Cass Sunstein teaches law at Harvard.  He's extensively published; his books  are fascinating, and educative.  I particularly enjoyed The Second Bill of Rights (2004).

Now I've come across another of Professor Sunstein's works that I intend to tackle ASAP.  It's called Impeachment: a Citizen's Guide (2017).  Given the results of the recent midterm elections, and the effect of those results on the House of Representatives, it's certain that Democrats will conduct extensive investigations in the Committees they'll control after Jan. 3.  For instance, Jerry Nadler will chair the Judiciary Committee, Adam Schiff, Intelligence, and Maxine Waters, Financial Services.  (I'd bet Mr. Trump is writhing over that last.)  Any of these and more might eventually lead to serious consideration of impeachment for Donald Trump.

I hope to learn, from Sunstein's most recent book, exactly what high crimes and misdemeanors are.  Treason and bribery are pretty easy to get one's head around.  In any case, they're defined within the Constitution itself.  But high crimes and misdemeanors aren't, at least not in anything better than opaque fashion.

Chapter 5 in Sunstein's latest is called Interpreting the Constitution.  That's where I'll start.  I believe wholeheartedly in the need to view our foundational documents through the filter of the evolution of language (In that context, you might be interested in Garry Wills' Inventing America.)

Stay tuned.

Simply Unconscionable

Stephen Miller, one of whose ancestors was a refugee from Tzarist, anti-Semitic Russia, seems not to have learned compassion from that history.  Miller has again become influential on Administration policy on immigration.

Today, he made statements justifying shutting down the government on the 21st, should Congress not fund Mr. Trump's much-yearned-for border wall.  Further, Miller reiterated the Administration's policy on immigration in general - that it can no longer be based upon The New Colossus.  All of this pales, however, in comparison to an even newer, more cruel wrinkle.  The administration intends to pursue deporting thousands of refugees from the Vietnam War.

Yes, you read that right.  It's hard to imagine a more inhumane policy (unless one considers children in cages).