Virginia Beach

I fancy myself a wordsmith, and even something of an historian of the effective use of language. In that vein and because of yesterday's events in Virginia Beach, follow me as I parse the Second Amendment.

It's not a beau ideal, folks.  It was and is simply a statement of one way in which the United States would differ from the British Empire.

The first column below is the actual text of the Amendment; the second column is my interpretation of it.  I'm by no means alone in that interpretation.

A well regulated Militia	We had no standing police or military forces when the Constitution was written.
being necessary to the security of a free State	Individual states were left to fend for themselves as far as internal security went.  They even fought among themselves …
the right of the people to keep and bear Arms	The British considered it treasonous for “colonists” to be well-armed and –trained.
shall not be infringed.	So we, the newborn United States, won’t prevent anyone from owning a weapon,  as long as it and the individual who owns it can be part o a “well-regulated militia”.

Is It Worth It?

Most exports from Mexico to the United States fall into one of two categories:

• automotive parts
• vehicles - personal and business

Such items in the aggregate cost over $360 billion per year.

It's expected that tariffs imposed today against Mexico by the Trump administration could add as much as $1500.00 per vehicle to the price of a new car in the U. S.

President Pelosi

Former GOP Representative Tom Coleman of Kansas earlier this week broached the idea that both Donald Trump and Mike Pence should be impeached.

It's unlikely that will happen.  It's even more unlikely that either would be convicted in the Senate and removed from office.  The upper chamber of our national legislature, chock-full of Trumpian apparatchiks, wouldn't consider removal.  Even Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, whose decision it would be to hold or not to hold a trial for Messrs Pence and Trump, might demur.

But despite all that, it would be a consumation devoutly to be wished    President Pelosi ...

Constitution 101

The current occupant of the Oval Office apparently doesn't have a clue about our foundational document  Today, he said he doubts the courts would allow him to be impeached.

Day 2 of My Detox

... i.e., of my effort to emphasize positive, progressive ideas rather than bash retrogressive ones.

Meet the gentleman whose work gave fact and substance to Bernie Sanders' economic platform in 2016, and to developing wealth-tax legislation like Elizabeth Warren's

I trust this independent thinker and his conclusions as much as I trust those who developed open source software like my beloved Linux, .  Check out Thomas Piketty's  online wealth tax simulator .It allows us to test his reasoning about returns from, and responses to, such a tax

Booker and Yang

I come from a long line of blue-collar, union-member Democrats. In large part, that's the motivation for this blog.  Trump-bashing can be seductive and addicting, but I want 15104 to be better grounded.

A number of family stories illustrate the importance of what I call proactive progressivism ; here's one.  My Grandfather Boytim worked in the Homestead mill of U. S. Steel; two of his sons worked with him.  They also accompanied him in an ambulance to the hospital after a crane, hoisting a steel beam much heavier than the weight limit defined for the crane:

• dropped the beam
• pinned him
• smashed his pelvis
• caused him so much pain that even successive shots of morphine didn't help

 and ultimately killed him..  So call me a socialist, if you like, for what I'm about to present.

It's entirely possible that my grandfather might have lived a normal life span, might have left his widow and nine children with some material support, had not the politics and the economy of that era made him a victim.  Two current Democratic candidates have ideas that might preclude such victimization.  Senator Cory Booker suggests what he calls baby bonds - that is, a guaranteed stipend for every child born in the U. S.    Andrew Yang proposes UBI or Universal Basic Income - a set of guaranteed payments of $1,000 per month, or $12,000 per year, to all U.S. citizens over the age of 18. 

The cost to the Federal government of either or both of these programs would be roughly $4 billion for baby bonds, and $888 billion for UBI .  That works out to about $12.-00 per person of those served.  Strikes me that the quality of life and health that could result are worth it ...

A Very Stable Genius?

Donald Trump, in addition to his schoolyard-bully insults like low-IQ individual, has taken to misspelling the former Vice President's last name.

But one can assume that Mr. Trump takes comfort from the fact that his BFF Kim Jung Un shares his opinion of Mr. Biden.