Constitutional Reform

This is more than a little arrogant of me.  At the end of the day, I'm just an occasional blogger with a forum whose name comes from a medium-popular comic book.  I am not, nor have I ever claimed to be, a political scientist.  And yet when I look around, it seems to me that a big part of the current division and tension in American society stems from the fact that our Constitution is, at best, outdated.  We are in desperate need of constitutional reform, and sadly, I don't see it ever, ever happening, not when we need two-thirds of the states and the Congress to make any changes happen.  Hell, we couldn't even amend the current document to call for equal rights for women....

I think we need some common-sense changes.  Nothing too radical or socialist, just...common sense.

1. The duties and requirements of the office of President need to be specifically spelled out.  The "gentleman's agreement" of things like disposing of assets into a trust has clearly failed in the Trump era.  It needs to be written into the Constitution that the President must place into trust all business and financial interests until such time as he leaves office.  The emoluments clause needs to be clarified.  Every time a foreign dignitary or lobbyist stays in a hotel owned by the President's business interests, it is a potential violation of that clause, and the potential for abuse is enormous.  That abuse needs to be eliminated.  Candidates for the office MUST release their taxes by no later than one month prior to the election.  Likewise, it needs to be specifically stated that the President's pardon powers do not extend to him/herself.  Yes, it's completely ridiculous that we even need to spell this out, but here we are.  In a society where we have to tell people "do not take this medicine if you are allergic to it," we apparently also have to tell the President that no, you can't commit crimes and then forgive yourself for them.

2. The Electoral College needs to go, entirely.  We currently do not have a "one person, one vote" democracy.  Because of the College, a vote from a state with sparse population counts almost twice as much as a vote from a more populated state.  It is grossly unfair, and it is why we have had three elections in my lifetime (so far) where the candidate who made it into the office of the Presidency had LOST the popular vote.  There is sufficient protection for these states in the Senate, in that they have equal representation with all the other states.  Their citizens' votes in elections should not be counted more than others.  Currently (like it or not, Don) the majority of U.S. citizens do not have the President for whom they voted.  We no longer live in an agrarian society where news takes weeks to travel back home from the Capitol.  The Electoral College has outlived its usefulness.  Let the popular vote decide the winner.

3. Term limits for Congress.  No more professional politicians.  Twelve years is enough time for public service for anyone.  Two terms for Senators, six for Congresspersons.  Let Congress get back to the business of caring for the people's needs instead of raising money to keep their jobs.  Let's have a Congress made up of a diverse group of citizens again -- not just lawyers.  Congress was perfectly OK with limiting the Presidency to two terms after Roosevelt.  They should do the same for themselves.

4. We need a Consitutional requirement that vacancies in the Supreme Court be filled as soon as possible.  Congress should never have had the power to hold a seat on the Court vacant for a year.  Spell it out to make it illegal for things like McConnell's stunt to ever happen again.  And yes, although I am left-leaning, I would have been equally outraged if the Democratic Congress had tried this same stunt with President Bush.  It's not right.  The Supreme Court vacancies should not be tied to the election cycle.  (One exception, and it will take a sharper legal mind than mine to figure out the details--it should be expressly forbidden for a sitting President to nominate a judge while that President is under an investigation that might result in that same judge deciding the case for or against that President.  Current events once again seem to make this convoluted circumstance a necessity.)

Think about it.  Most of the strife in our current non-democracy is caused by one or more of the situations remedied above.  Is it a perfect solution?  No.

But will any of it ever happen?  Sadly, also -- no.

Opting Out

I wish there was a way to opt out of our massive consumer culture without opting out of civilization altogether.  Does Amazon.com know how utterly creepy it is to find spam email trying to sell me something I casually looked at on another site??  It's truly a major invasion of privacy.

I use a VPN.  I clean tracking software every time I use my browser.  And yet somehow, despite my not inconsiderable precautions, after a brief respite of peace, I find new ads and spam in my inbox because somebody somewhere has figured out a new way to do an end run around my privacy barrier.

Since Amazon and the others apparently have their bots look at everything I do, let me say this:  LEAVE ME ALONE.  Your algorithms suck.  You have never successfully shown me something I am interested in, and never successfully extrapolated something I might like to buy.  Never.  Not once.  Your creepy-assed intrusions make me LESS likely to purchase anything from you, not more likely.

I am, sadly, still maintaining a Facebook account.  As I explained once before, part of my duties as the recording secretary for the board of a small local choral group includes updating and monitoring our Facebook page, and you can't be an admin on a page there without an account.  (I can't wait until it's somebody else's job.) For all their recent ads on how they're going to better, I can tell you that Facebook is full of shit.  I still see pop-up ads for products I looked at elsewhere -- on a page for a non-profit community choral group! -- and Facebook itself nags me on a daily basis for money to boost our posts and our likes.  We don't NEED 1,200 more views and likes.  We're not growing a business.  All we need is to have  single place to remind 40 people that we have a rehearsal on Monday.  Facebook knows this.  They still send me daily notifications, and I have to check all of them out on the unlikely chance that it's one or our members or fans with an actual question.  When I do, it's a noodge from Facebook reminding me that my readers haven't heard from me in "a while."  (Usually this comes in 24 hours after a post.)

I don't NEED to spam our members or our fans.  I don't NEED to access their contacts so that we can spam those people.  We don't need to spam anyone.  I want to be part of the chorus that people want to come listen to, not one that people curse at because we're filling their inboxes with bullshit.

Internet, go back to being a public utility.  It's what you do best.  The power company doesn't nag me to buy more light bulbs, and the phone company doesn't nag me to put an extension line in every room of my home.  Take a page from them, and leave me the Hell alone.

Been Quiet

Sorry I've been away for so long.  I realize that since my leaving Facebook, this is the only way some of my friends have of keeping up contact with me, and I have been more than somewhat lax in making regular updates.

The sad truth is that there hasn't been much to report.

We did go away for a couple of weeks in July to spend some time with my sister and friends in Italy.  We do this every few years, as finances and circumstances permit, and it's always a great way to recharge, especially for my hardworking better half.  As you can see from the picture above, my sister outdid herself this year as far as location is concerned.

But other than a nice time away, there isn't much to say.

I'm tired of political rants.  I still believe that our current government is the most monstrous mistake that our electorate has ever made, but I despair of it ever being corrected.  Thanks to corruption and interference, it may not even be corrected at the ballot box; I've heard more than a few disturbing rumblings that we might just forego the next Presidential election and keep His Royal Orangeness in the White House indefinitely.  But there I go again, and what is blogging about it going to do, apart from maybe getting me on some FBI list as unfriendly?  There is no political will to oppose the current regime, nor power by the opposition to do so.  So I'd just be adding to the cacaphony.

I could rant about my health, but again, this is something I cannot change.  Most days I seem to be responding to treatment.  The occasional bad day is a slam out of left field, but I spend that day chained to my bathroom, it passes, and life goes on.  Again, nothing worthy of note.

So if you're a friend and wondering what's up with me, the best thing to do is to shoot me an email over at thayes713@gmail.com or to DM me on my Instagram; my handle there is tomglfan.  I'm most likely to see a message at one of those two places.  Clearly I'm here only intermittently, and Facebook is dead for me, just as Twitter is about to be.

I'm sure I'll be back here when I get so pissed off about something that only an essay will let me vent properly, but in the meanwhile, have a fabulous day.  Talk to you soon -- Tom

In These Troubled Times....

...this always makes me smile.  Here's hoping it does for you as well!

via GIPHY

Worse and Worse

(Click on the above image for an expanded view if you can't read it.)

When I was a kid, this was the kind of thing that showed up in the comics I was reading.  Yes, there was apparently a need for Superman to remind people to have more empathy for refugees.  But the kids he was lecturing to were appalled at the conditions of the refugee camp.  As anyone would have been, a mere 15-20 years after World War II.

That America is dead.

Despite all the grief Baby Boomers are getting, most of us, I think, are horrified by the very idea of putting people into camps, of ripping children from families at our borders, and of pathetically attempting to justify this behavior with selective quotations from the Bible.

This is not who we were.  It shouldn't be who we are.  We never used to be a nation that reveled in Nazi rallies, or that chanted things like "Build a wall!" and "Lock her up!"

But we are now.  And it's disgusting.  I can only imagine all the people sneering now at a sentiment like, "You can help too, by being friendly...."

Instead we have a president who admires a foreign dictator's ability to make his people sit up at attention.  Who wishes he could make his people do that.  We have citizens who don't care what their demagogue burns down, because it's worth it to them to see how upset it makes "elitist liberals."  Because cutting off your nose to spite your own face is now seen as a good thing.

People -- this is NOT OK.

This is not going to change unless we step up to change it.  We have to throw these monsters out.  For the love of what this country used to be, and could be again, register to vote, NOW, and vote against them in November.  This is no longer about party.  This is about who we are, who we want to be, who we could be again.  The Republican party has shown zero interest or ability to check abuses and stand up for what is right and decent.  They need to go.  Screw "#NotAllRepublicans."  They have had numerous chances to say, "No, you can't do that, not here," and have declined to do so, in the interest of keeping their jobs.  Our politicians have not had much interest in representing us.  Their job is no longer serving people, their job is to get re-elected to their jobs.  Every two years we have the opportunity to send the entire House of Representatives packing, along with a third of the Senate, and we always fail to do so.  That needs to change.

We used to think we were the greatest country in the world.  We are not.  Probably we never were.  But as we turn our backs on former allies, insult our neighbors, start trade wars and close our borders, we diminish ourselves to everyone.  More and more of us are ashamed to be American.  And we are right to feel that way, as long as nothing is done to check the abuses inflicted by our current government.  As long as those abuses continue, America will continue to be nothing more than a blot on the world landscape.

There.

I said it.

Come at me.

NFL and the Anthem

Today the NFL owners, with ZERO input from the players' union, laid down their new policy with regard to taking the knee during the National Anthem at NFL games.  I hope it winds up in the courts real soon, because it sure as hell looks like an infringement on freedom of speech to me.

Basically, the policy states that players must stand for the anthem, or remain in the locker room.  No disrespect for the anthem or the flag will be tolerated, and teams ignore the policy at their peril.  Violators WILL be fined.  I assume this means both teams and individuals.

I should have expected a response this tone-deaf from a bunch of rich white guys, but even in this age of Trump, I keep hoping for the best from people.  And I keep being disappointed by them.

First of all, taking the knee during the national anthem has absolutely nothing to do with the flag.  Let's state this again:  Taking the knee during the national anthem has absolutely nothing to do with disrespecting the American flag.

Players, particularly those of color, began taking the knee during the anthem as a way of pointing out the inequities in American society, especially within the justice system, which inordinately and negatively affect people of color.  Those broad stripes and bright stars are not the same for everybody, and the players got sick of pretending that they are, especially since they the ones essentially providing gladiatorial entertainment for the American masses.

Recent tragic events provide a classic example of what I mean.  The tragedy at the Texas high school this week which resulted in eight dead students and two dead faculty was perpetrated by a white man.  A white man, in a long black trenchcoat, armed.  Yet law enforcement managed to take him alive.  Contrast that with the tragedy of Philando Castile, who did not survive a TRAFFIC STOP, despite being calm and polite and compliant.  Compare that with Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brown who was tased and arrested over a parking violation.

No white family I know of has to have "the talk" with their children on how to survive an encounter with police.  Police for white kids are their friends and someone to turn to in time of trouble.  To a kid of color, they are a hazard to be negotiated, or a danger that many do not survive.

I believe that the players have a right to protest their views in any way that seems fit to them.  I believe that their right to free speech and free expression has been grossly infringed upon by this new policy.  I realize that during this age of jingoism and Trump, to force players to either stand or remove themselves has great appeal for the Trump base, who probably also watch a lot of football.  It doesn't make it right.

While I have never been a huge fan of football, for a variety of reasons both personal and political, I will be boycotting the game and its sponsors until this egregious infringement on the right of free speech is rescinded.  This should not be allowed to stand, folks.

Lies, I Tell You! It's All Lies!

(photo courtesy of the League of American Bicyclists)

I imagine that most of us have seen Facebook's new advertisements, either online or on television, about how things were good and then went wrong, but now they're going to make it all better by getting back to basics and connecting us as friends again.

Bullshit.

I manage the Facebook page for one of my local choral groups, Harrisburg's River City Singers.  (Hence the picture of the Susquehanna River above!)  It's part of my duties as secretary for the board of the RCS, and it is the only reason I maintain a FaceBook account.  I have long since deleted my personal information and personal photos from FaceBook.  But I can't be an admin for the RCS page without an account, so until a new board and new officers take over, I'm stuck.

I can, however, tell you that managing this page has been an eye-opening experience.  And then some.

On an almost daily basis, I receive messages and notifications from FaceBook on how I can expand the range of the River City Singers posts for a small fee.  We have a concert coming up this Sunday, and just now FaceBook offered to "boost" my event to 13K accounts for a mere $30.

We rehearse and perform in a small UCC church.  It seats maybe 150 people.  We use the church not because of any religious affiliations or reasons, but because the RENT IS FREE and they let us use the hall for performances FOR NOTHING.  We don't even have to split the take when we pass the hat.  The $30 that FB wants would by sheet music for ten of our members.

In short, we are a small local group, building a nice following through word of mouth, and do not in any way, shape or form need to spam 13,000 fellow FaceBook users.  The fact that FaceBook itself is incessantly asking us to do so reveals the depth of their insincerity.