"Buddhanature is the innate primordial freedom of the mind, which is naturally imbued with wisdom, compassion, power, and bliss." Karl Brunnholzl Capitalism is, or is soon to become a dying economic practice (system). The reasons are certainly many, complex, and interconnected. But the primary reason is that capitalism, particularly in the USA, has become entirely focused on increased productivity to maximize profits and increase shareholder's stake, ie increase the wealth of individual shareholders. Which means in truth, as well as in straight talk, to insure that the real (and obscene) wealth is funneled to and concentrated in the top 1 or 2 percent of the nation. When self interest becomes the driving force behind every decision, and selfishness essentially becomes a "virtue" as it is with folks like Trump, then the footing on which a society stands on begins to crumble. Which is precisely the situation America is finding itself in today. In these pr
Trump interrupted Biden continuously with 'Are you gonna back the court?'.
ReplyDeleteComing from the guy who has packed the court with loyalists in record
time and whose party wouldn't even consider a middle road judge like
Merrick Garland, the air dripped with hypocrisy. Fareed Zacharia noted
earlier this week that the trend the last 20 years of administrations
had 8 Democratic and 12 GOP...and that 8 of those presidential years,
the POTUS had LOST the popular vote, elected on one case by the court
(seemed to be packed, duh) and in the other by a peculiar fault in
the electoral college system. This has worked so well, that the
current TOP candidate plans, plots and whines 'ballot tampering'.
Well, he should know. We could see years and years of Republican
presidents, each having been beaten significantly in the popular
vote. A democracy should have one man-one vote, or it is something
other than a democracy. It would be an anarchic circus run by a
petty tyrant, backed by rubber stamping spineless legislators and
a handpicked judiciary. Oh oh- I guess we have that now.
I know you knoe this BB Idaho but with respect to democracy we really are a representative democracy. We elect representatives and senators directly from each state and the electoral college elects the president. It is an interesting concept the EC and it was designed as it was because the founders didn't really want the one man one vote to actually determine the president. The concept made sense in what, 1787
DeleteMany argue the EC is still the best method to elect the president. I am on the fence on that but realize the EC is becoming less accepted by the left. Of course the right fears direct popular vote to determine the president because they believe the east and west coastie states would be determining federal policy. You know, the more "socialist minded" states where everybody wants free stuff. Of course thats BS but you'll never convince the cons differently.
Personally I think we'd be better served if we broke up the USA into 3 geographical regions with a president and governing bodies for each. In essense what I'm saying is we as a nation have real l y managed t F things up big time.
As I understand it, RN, the concept is one of those warts in our otherwise sterling
Deletehistory related to the uncomfortable aspects of slavery-
Standard civics-class accounts of the Electoral College rarely mention the real demon dooming direct national election in 1787 and 1803: slavery:
"At the Philadelphia convention, the visionary Pennsylvanian James Wilson proposed direct national election of the president. But the savvy Virginian James Madison responded that such a system would prove unacceptable to the South: “The right of suffrage was much more diffusive [i.e., extensive] in the Northern than the Southern States; and the latter could have no influence in the election on the score of Negroes.” In other words, in a direct election system, the North would outnumber the South, whose many slaves (more than half a million in all) of course could not vote. But the Electoral College—a prototype of which Madison proposed in this same speech—instead let each southern state count its slaves, albeit with a two-fifths discount, in computing its share of the overall count."
It was reprehensible then and continues so now. IMO, the Civil War and Lincoln's 'of the people, for the people
and by the people' should have corrected and excised that particular wart. But, hey, I'm no political expert,
just an old retired science guy and I supposed way to old to even care. But if we can elect a Trump, there's
still warts, ya know?
Given the culture and times Madison was certainly right (IMO) as to southern's objections. They remain today as near as I cxan tell and even some northernees agree. Only now it's not about slavery and how to handle it, it,s simply about how to best retain power.
DeleteAnyhoo, at 68 I'm beginning why exactly why I continue to care so much. Guess my folks broiught me up right maybe. :)