What do Democrats and this Fortune Cookie Have in Common?

Democratic Party Platform?

I have been feeling a bit deflated because this fortune cookie seems to be both so taunting and vague.  But Mark Price posted a link on Twitter that makes me think this fortune cookie really could be adopted as the slogan for today’s Democrats.  Not that it should, mind you, but it certainly could.

Anyway, if Democrats are feeling a bit deflated, perhaps they too see something both taunting and vague in Democratic leadership.

The evidence is everywhere and a good example of the thinking supporting my thesis is in an article posted by Mark Price.  It is a blog post by Jared Bernstein , an occassional contributor on fiscal and economic issues on network television and one-time economic advisor to the Obama White House.  I can’t say I know that Mr. Bernstein is a Democrat, but most people would certainly agree that he is a liberal economist and has advised our Democratic president.

No need to go into a lot of detail here regarding the article.  As far as my point is concerned, the article speaks for itself.  There is a sort of ironic tone about it.  Democrats today seem to think that the best way to fight a good fight is to wait until the other side gets bored or implodes or maybe just goes away.  Democrats have always been a little too accommodating, it is why they don’t march lock-step to single defined agenda and spew the same talking points, true or not.  But doesn’t Mr. Bernstein’s position here just throw in the towel?

Bernstein is saying there are many things we should be doing to change the bleak job situation in the United States.  He agrees with arguments Paul Krugman made recently about how a WPA-style works program would both put people to work and give a good economic boost to our sluggish economy, for example.  These are things we should do…and, in fact, we could be doing them, too.

But with the likes of Eric Cantor and Paul Ryan “ascending” in Washington, maybe we chicken out a little.  Bernstein seems to say so even as he says we shouldn’t go that far.  He asks Paul Krugman to write an article or two that deal with what we could do versus what we should do.  In short, Bernstein is conceding.  He’s saying because the right has its way — and power — we need to be a realist and do what we can do.  Well…yes and no and maybe.  Look at it this way, if you were going into a boxing ring with Mike Tyson and you felt pretty sure you were going to lose, would you show up entirely unprepared?  Maybe leave the gloves at home?

If you take this kind of thinking into politics, presumably waiting for a better day to beat your opponent, then this definitely sounds like a “good things will come in due course of time” strategy.  In the meantime you will get clobbered!  And let me ask, as I did in a previous post, what exactly is “due course of time” and what are these “good things” we can expect?  Democrats need some leadership here.

Democrats need to at least start defining — and re-defining — an agenda on the left.  We can’t get in a situation where we are always trying to remake the Right’s crazy ideas.  Democrats should aggressively promote labor, economic, and health care reforms of its own.  Define a starting point and defend it.  Right now all the messaging is coming from the likes of Cantor and Ryan … and even crazier people like Palin, Paul, and Bachmann … and where is the answer from the left?  If we listen to Bernstein it seems to be a rather timid answer at best.

Put your gloves on!

 

Define “Due Course of Time”

I am quite eager to have faith in a recent fortune cookie, but perhaps I better get a sense of what “due course of time” might mean.

The fortune reads:  “Good things will come to you in due course of time.”  When I first read the fortune I will admit to feeling irrationally optimistic.  I almost felt as if good things indeed had already arrived.  Who can argue with such a promising outlook?

But I have been thinking more about it recently.  Who is to say what is an appropriate amount of time before good things will come?  And what are “good things” anyway?  I wish these things had more detail…and were more reliable.

Weighing things one way or the other is depressing me now.  The optimism I felt when I first saw the fortune is lost, and yet I don’t want to give up hope.

So let’s look at lilacs for a while.

It has been a rather dismal lilac season here in Minneapolis.  Perhaps good things will come to lilacs in due time, too, but this is not the year.  It might have rained too much when the lilacs were in full bloom.  A constant wash of cold rain has to knock out a lot of lilac perfume.  And the flowers seemed to give up quickly this year.  It wasn’t a season for trying.  Now most of the lilacs in my area already far ahead and preening for mid-summer blandness of deep greens and thick waxy leaves. 

I did manage to find one lilac up for the show this spring, however, albeit a short effort.  Alas this shrub is giving up its color now too and it never offered much of that lilac sent.  In the due course of time, perhaps…

You know, fortune cookies and lilacs are kinda getting me down.  Who has a solid plan B for me?  Let’s be serious about it and call it Plan B.  (Capitals.)  Let’s make good things and due course of time happen now.

Chin up!

 

The Siegfried Farnon Approach

I have been watching a lot of All Creatures Great and Small again.  You can learn a great deal from All Creatures Great and Small.  I highly recommend it for everyone.

And to make the most of what I have learned, I am adopting the Siegfried Farnon approach to life; this includes a winning mix of style and class with healthy resignation to facts as facts.

Farnon style is a casual and yet a deliberate way of life.  It is what happens when the refined expectations of a squire must adopt to the quirks of a rural Yorkshire community.  That — I am learning — is what being a country veterinary is all about in mid-20th century rural England, at least in fictional Darrowby.

And in a very real way, the life of a premise sales rep shares a lot in common with a Yorkshire country veterinarian.  At least I think adopting the Siegfried Farnon approach to life will make the experiences more similar and for the premise sales rep more meaningful and successful.  Why not give it a try?

Some jobs are big, some jobs are small.  Some are challenging and rewarding while others just need to be done.  And the people behind the jobs run the range of personalities and courtesy.  Often it is a messy job, dirty and ungrateful.  But you can always dress it up and pull it off with style and panache.

Any job worth doing is worth doing right…and with style.  That’s the way to go.

In sales I think you need to look beyond the job and look at the goal; that’s important and I don’t deny it.  However too often we might get hung up worrying about the prize.  Either racing to get to the sale or getting bent up when results don’t align with expectation.

Certainly a case might die, but you can leave it knowing you did your best.  Quoting Siegried quoting Terence, While there’s life, there’s hope.

There’s a way to get any job done and you should do it the right way.  Siegfried Farnon teaches us that there is the right way — even an adequate way — but even more importantly, there is a better way.  Good results will follow when good results are possible.  Think that way and you’re bullet proof.

You have to look beyond the job and consider the people; more specifically if you can find a way to enjoy the people, both the good and the bad, the work can at least be fulfilling and provide some adventure.  A salesman doesn’t need to be friends with clients, but that doesn’t mean he cannot find a bit of sport in dealing with the human side of the business.

My job is to help when asked and when not to shut up.

Anyway, I think making a priority of joie de vivre while putting more focus on separating the job from pleasure of pursuing the work is the way to go.

Starting tomorrow…off we go!  Now is the best time.  Always is.

Warren Limmer’s Strange Justification for His Anti-Gay Marriage Obsession

Minnesota’s Republicans accomplished one thing during this year’s legislative session at the expense of much else, and what they accomplished isn’t worthy of much admiration.

Their divisive and misguided Minnesota Marriage Amendment – sponsored by Senator Warren Limmer, a paranoid Republican from Maple Grove who seems to see gays and non-residents threatening him from around every corner (he also sponsored the Voter ID legislation to curb the risk of a communist invasion, I suppose) — did little to move Minnesota ahead.  First off, Republicans were going to create jobs.  Of course they have had decades of supposed job-creating cuts to government to prove their point, but this was going to be the year and what do we get?  Based on results it appears that Republicans love a nasty recession.  (It gives them one more thing to complain and cry about.)

So Limmer and his type go off on a tangent and decide this is the year to propose anti-American legislation putting the rights of some Minnesotans up for a vote.  It is legislation that by simple logic that shouldn’t stand up to scrutiny.  Even by Limmer’s own declared standards this legislation is questionable.

MN Senator Warren Limmer, Rep–Maple Grove

In a Minnesota Pulbic Radio broadcast from the State Capitol yesterday, Gary Eichten discussed the Amendment with Warren Limmer and Senator Scott Dibble, a Democrat from Minneapolis and an openly gay member senator who opposes the legislation, like most intelligent people do.

Eichten asked Limmer why Limmer thought now was a good time for legislation of this sort.  Limmer spewed the typical half-truths about courts and marriage and such.  But very interestingly, Limmer said “[marriage] as everyone knows is a very intimate issue that everyone deals with.”  No shit?  So we need a public law to define this intimate issue?

I would imagine that Limmer has some very intimate issues of his own, but I doubt that I want to know anything about them.  What happens in that Great Gazoo dome of his isn’t going to be much more than a source of disgust for me, but I won’t try to legislate it.  He can wallow in his ignorance.

The problem is too many people agree with Limmer.  This idea that we need legislation to protect an intimate issue that has no impact on others beyond the two people directly involved is absurd.  Common sense has been hijacked by fear and bigotry.  And there is the problem.

Reinhold Niebuhr argued that as long as the average citizen were stupid, society would be vulnerable to injustice.  Since the Age of Reason — an age which hatched the wisdom of our Founding Fathers who are so much admired by the right wing, by the way – there has been the hope that reason would overrule ignorance.  But here we see reason pushed aside and ignored for the sake of personal fear and preference.  We claim that our nation’s foundation is in reason and justice, but with the help of the GOP continue to slide further and further away from these roots.

In short, guys like Limmer are wrong.  It is that simple.  You don’t have to disagree with his beliefs to understand this.  He is wrong on the logic of his positions alone.  If he can expect his ideas and values to be protected by our consent to our constitution, then others should expect the same protection.  Instead Limmer and people like him, want protection for people who think like he thinks and makes the argument that if a majority agrees with him we have to submit to the whims of the majority, regardless of its injustice.  This abuse of our constitution is a threat to all of us, including idiots like Limmer.

Ask Limmer and his ilk to explain his fear.  Ask him why an issue he calls an intimate one should be defined in the public sphere, especially when so many people disagree with him.  I have yet to hear any objective answer that seems to square with principles behind our Constitution that’s why they are striving to change it.  But on what grounds is it correct to change our Constitution?  Review the founding principles, it begins with an idea that people are equal and deserve equal protection under its law.

The insecurity of people like Limmer hardly justifies ransacking the very foundation of our consitutional rights, does it?

Let Republican Mistakes Haunt Them Not Us

I lived in Arizona for just over ten years, essentially all of the 1990s.  When I was in Arizona bragging about how smart, progressive, and inclusive Minnesota felt good.  Minnesota was a respected state with a strong economy, strong public services, and a strong sense of civic purpose.  All of that strength created a lot of opportunity and rich futures for countless Minnesotans.

Much has changed.  We have lost a lot of our bragging rights.

Today, unfortunately, we have a growing number of Minnesotans who view our traditions as mistakes, literally threats.  Where we once led on civil liberty issues, for example, we are about to put the rights of gay and lesbian citizens up for a vote.

Meanwhile our economy has been wrecked and our state finances ransacked by short-sighted anti-government policies.  Rather than correct those errors we let self-serving petulance divide the state and distract us from managing our state properly.  This kind of dysfunction would have been unthinkable in better days.

We are willing to let our citizens suffer to protect the advantages of the few.  That shouldn’t be acceptable anywhere, especially in Minnesota.  But fear and intolerance prevail today.  Ignorance will destroy us.

What has happened to us?  I won’t name names.  We know who they are.  The reactionary leadership that runs contrary to our state’s traditions have turned us from an exemplar of what works in governance to a dismal example of how quickly the success of the past can be destroyed.

Let the Republicans mistakes haunt them not us.  We deserve better.  It is time to save our state.  DO NOT VOTE REPUBLICAN!

It Is Only The Rapture…Again.

My Legs or Spongebob as an Old Sponge?

Geez.  Why is everyone in such a sour mood?

I will admit that maybe I am not the most likeable guy…no, it’s true.  But you would think I could muster a little friendly hello here and there.  Maybe my legs are too pale.  I have no idea.  Or is it my shoes?

Anyway, I took a mid-afternoon stroll through the Roberts Bird Sanctuary after the rain.  A beautiful time for the walk.  Most people still had not ventured out.  In fact for most of the trail there were no foot prints.  Frogs were calling to each other and the birds quickly got to business doing whatever it is birds do.  (I understand they do it with bees?  I don’t know.  I never felt the need to ask.)

I didn’t encounter any other urban hikers until halfway down the trail.  Two nervous men with heavy accents and a lot of gear.  Perhaps they are walking America, that’s what I like to think.  They said hello, but they’re foreigners and foreigners are friendly.  My fellow Minneapolites…well, that’s another story.

The next person I met was about 15 yards down the trail from the owl nest that is all the rage recently.  He was looking in another direction and so after confirming that an owl was still in the tree I thought I would be neighborly and let him know about it in case he wasn’t aware of it.  Just to cover my bases and be helpful.

The old guy curtly cut me off saying, “Yeah, I know.  They left.”

I told him, No, there is one up there now, and he turned his back on me and stared into the trees.

So I left.  No need to ruin a grumpy guy’s nice day.  The sun was coming out and the fresh young leaves, still dripping rainwater, glowed in the woods.  Down the path a pair of women were coming my way and they seemed friendly enough.  “Hello, turned out to be a beautiful day!”  They said nothing.  Stone faced walked right past me.

(This happens a lot.  Read the rest of my blog and you’ll see this story told in the past.  Oh, and tell your friends to read this blog, too.  Hurry.  The Rapture is near…the End is nigh.)

Even a cranky old mallard duck got in my face.  He was funny at least.  The duck appeared unhappy with me interrupting his nap.  He lifted his sleepy head out from under his wing and quacked straight on in my face — “Quack! Quack! Quack!” he said, more or less — before then pacing the log impatiently.

I stood still for a moment and let the duck resume his nap.  When I twitched, however, he got upset again and quacked once more, this time glaring wildly at me with that muderous if-you-ever-do-that-again kind of intensity.  (Yes, ducks can glare.)  So I took his picture, for which, of course, he did not cooperate.

Soon another couple.  Father and daughter, perhaps.  “Hello,” I said.  I heard a grunt in reply.

Finally, as I was about to leave the sanctuary, a couple of women very nicely and politely said hello to me in reply.  All was not lost.

Hell, when I was a kid we were raised to greet people.  We’d even go out of our way to say hello to old people and nuns!  (Didn’t you?)  Now you would think you were trying to climb into bed with someone just because you want to be civil, to be human.

Maybe The Rapture has everyone down.  I mean if you only have a few hours to go you don’t have much time to think about what to do next and I guess I ca understand how that might be depressing.  It is like the last hour before closing at Disney World.  Do you wait for major attraction or maybe go down good old Main Street USA?

I don’t know.

Minnesota Politics: Taxes and Health Care Show GOP Priorities

This is short so maybe even people who haven’t had time to sort out what’s happening with our state’s priorities will have time to understand a simple example.

Take a look at proposals for the state’s Health and Human Services budget.  Passage of the HHS omnibus bill which reduces the budget by $1.6 billion dollars would result in lost health care benefits for approximately 138,000 of Minnesota’s most needy citizens, including many children.  The GOP contends it must do this to balance the state’s budget.

Governor Mark Dayton’s plan would raise nearly $2.9 billion in overall state revenues by increasing tax rates on the top 5% of Minnesota’s income earners.  This is part of Dayton’s plan to balance the state’s budget and it doesn’t involve cutting essential services to our neediest citizens.

Conservatives and the misguided self-righteous will argue that the problems of the unfortunate should not be solved at the cost of the fortunate.  Ok, whatever…keep moral questions out of this.  Look at facts.

Right now in Minnesota the top 5% of income earners pay a smaller percentage of their overall income in taxes than the rest of Minnesota’s tax payers.  Minnesota has an increasingly regressive tax system as the effective tax rate for top earners continues to decrease.  These are really rather simple numbers to understand, but it seems that no one is taking time to think it through.

Summaries of our tax situation can be found at the Institute on Taxation and Policy  and here is a handy summary in a chart from two years ago.  A more thorough and recent report is here at Minnesota 2020.

In essence, the less-fortunate are paying a larger percentage of their income in taxes, shouldn’t they expect more from it?  That’s one way to look at it.  But why would you support a tax policy that gives a break to the wealthiest when you must cut essential services for the neediest to do so?

The GOP keeps telling us we need to live within our means.  Very clearly and plainly they are telling us that tax cuts for the wealthy are more important to them than the welfare of the neediest.  Is that the kind of priority that we value in our society?  As long as the GOP thinks unsustainable tax cuts are “within our means” they are showing exactly what priorities Republicans value.

All Mark Dayton is proposing is tax fairness.  He is trying to eliminate only some of the regressive qualities of our tax system and get the wealthiest to pay the same proportion of their income in taxes that the poorest pay.  What is wrong with that?

(NB  These numbers will move around some if the GOP ever agrees to negotiate, something they have so far refused to do.  The priorities matter and are clearly illustrated by this comparison.)

A Break from Politics

Springtime Foilage

Watching reckless GOP obstinance ruin Minnesota is depressing.  So I am going to back away from it for a while and share a pleasant distraction.

I have been walking the neighborhood and watching Cold War-era science fiction as a means of escape.  You should try it, too.

(Watching Phantom from Space at the moment.  Great film, but lousy use of day-for-night photography and a space alien who runs like a pansy. )

Let’s start with some neighborhood updates:

First, the owl chick appears a few days away from fledging.  Still a lot of down, but it is maturing quickly.  I see only one young bird.  I thought there were, too, but I might have been seeing one of the parents in the nest.  The mature birds are magnificent and easily seen as they stand guard over the nest.

Bread and Pickle is open at the Lake Harriet bandshell.  Good burgers and sandwiches.  Modest but sufficient servings.  No gut busters.  Perfect, though, for taking the edge off of an hour watching Minnesota legislative proceedings on television.  No Coke machine yet at Bread and Pickle, but they’ll gladly serve an Arnold Palmer.

Flowering Trees, Lake Harriet, Minneapolis, MN

And the trees and shrubs are starting leaf out.  Even caught my first whiff of lilac today — although that happened near the old Faribault House in Mendota.  Lilac will be a good cover for the stench of what has become Minnesota GOP politics, by the way.

Oh, I should mention Tilia in Linden Hills, too.  I haven’t been there in a while.  Too many strange dreams.  I am convinced I have been sleepwalking and strolling in at closing time and ordering a beer, but it would be rather awkward to go in an ask if that is in fact the case.  So I’m hiding my cash when I go to sleep and checking my pockets in the morning for a Tilia charge receipt in my pocket.  If I found a Tilia receipt, that would be a good clue affirming my sleepwalking.  (I hope I dress right…or at least dress.)

But don’t let my little quirks and transgressions influence you, you should check out the good people and excellent food at Tilia.  If you stay late you might meet me!  (Finding their website is quite a challenge, by the way.  I have linked it here.)

So yes, back again…the state of politics in Minnesota really has me down.  A very, very sad state of affairs, indeed.  It is one of those things I never believed I would see.  Smart, progressive Minnesota held hostage by people who are anything but smart and progressive.  It is like an invasive species polluting your favorite lake.  In fact Koch, Zellers, and Michel et al have the sense and personality of bottom-feeding carp so the thought isn’t that far off the mark.  But it really is sad…it is like a once pristine water being polluted and you wonder if you’ll live long enough to see things set straight again.

That’s why I go for my walks.  The Roberts Bird Sanctuary is a good spot to put things in perspective.  In the trees are birds oblivious to it all …

Lake Harriet, West Shoreline, Linden Hills, Minneapolis.

(Although expect the GOP to propose raising money by selling special hunting permits to hunt Great Horned Owls any day now…that wouldn’t surprise me one bit, god forbid we pursue tax parity and fairness.  That’s crazy talk.  Little stunts like selling off state assets is what counts for smart politics in the whacky world of today’s conservatives.  Shooting owls can’t be too far fetched.  Damn owls are freeloading on the “job-creating” millionaires anyway.  Blast ‘em!  And get the freeloading granny, too!)

…and in the adjoining Lakewood Cemetery are better Minnesotans who have passed to the Other Side believing their once-great state would be forever a strong leader in smart politics and civic pride.  We must look like a ring of Dante’s hell to them now.  Why do the worthy and the just have to suffer with the likes of our soi disant GOP leaders?  Heaven knows and isn’t giving up the answer.

Time to finish my movie, go for a walk, and hide my cash.  It feels like a sleep walking kind of a night.

Now scroll down and read a better post.  Tell your friends and family to do the same.

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Minnesota Marriage Amendment

According to Article IV of the Minnesota State Constitution, “Each member and officer of the legislature before entering upon his duties shall take an oath or affirmation to support the Constitution of the United States, the constitution of this state, and to discharge faithfully the duties of his office to the best of his judgment and ability.”  Let’s start there.

A key principle behind the Constitution of the United States and the Minnesota State Constitution is the principle of equal protection under the law.  For a review you can find the Equal Protection Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution.  The law dictates that  “no state shall [...] deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

So what the hell are the GOPers trying to do with their pro-discrimination, anti-marriage amendment?

It would seem that these misguided GOP efforts would be dead on arrival.  What harm to anyone’s rights is being done by gay marriage?  What purpose, other than a political one, could an amendment like this serve?  Any rational and objective person has to admit that no harm is caused by gay marriage and that the effort to promote this legislation is a blatantly political move, pitting the special interests of one group against those of another.  Our constitution exists to protect rights equally, not to serve the interests of popularity contests.

This lazy bit of political showmanship is an embarrassment to better Minnesotans.  What was once a progressive and relatively sophisticated state now suffers under the bigoted and backward mismanagment of today’s hopelessly distracted and paranoid GOP.

Do we need to remind today’s conservatives that they claim to respect the sanctity of our nation’s and our state’s constitution?  Listen to fools like Geoff Michel talk about support for the amendment.  Where is there even a hint of constitutional authority giving them reason to argue for this political measure?  It all seems to boil down to a simple-minded justification:  Let the people decide.

When our elected leaders took the oath of office, they accepted the responsiblity to defend the rights of all our citizens equally.  The Constitution exists — and the purpose further reinforced by the Equal Protection Clause — to defend the rights of the minority over the wishes of a majority.  I doubt this will happen in Minnesota, but if a majority did indeed support this hare-brained idea, it would legislate discrimination against a group for no reason that protects any other group from harm.

We are all equally endowed “to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” as stated in the opening lines of our national Constitution.  By what right does the shameful GOP in this state think otherwise?

Tomorrow is a rally at the State Capitol against this amendment.  It is time for better and smarter Minnesotans to stand up against the hypocritical bigotry that is turning our state upside down.  We deserve better here in Minnesota.  Oppose this Amendment and the fools who support it.

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No Vikings Stadium in Arden Hills

Ok, let’s talk about this again…

I am going with the idea that the Minnesota legislature will approve some sort of program for the Minnesota Vikings and if that is the case then I think we should be as smart as possible with the investment we will make.

Arden Hills appears to be the favorite choice for a new stadium, but it has many drawbacks as I see it and all of them relate to the location.

First of all we are being told that the location will require road improvements which will cost somewhere between an additional $175 and $240 million dollars.  We will be asked to pay for these improvements when millions of dollars of other road projects are being cut or delayed.  We have critical safety and maintenance issues that should take priority over building new highways for the special interests of a private business like the Minnesota Vikings.

Secondly, these road improvements would not be needed if the stadium were built where existing infrastructure already serves stadiums.  Downtown Minneapolis has a central location (Arden Hills is on the northern side of the Twin Cities metro area) and existing infrastructure serving it.

Thirdly, the supporters of the Arden Hills site seem to think that building a stadium will stimulate development in that area.  I’m not sure development is a good idea there, but I doubt it would happen anyway.  We already have a surplus of office and retail space in the area and the housing market remains depressed.  It seems like a pipe dream to expect acres of sports stadium and parking would draw development.

A central location like downtown Minneapolis has other advantages as well.  It already has a concentration of hotels and other businesses that will serve the stadium.  Supporters of the Arden Hills site counter that football only is played eight or ten days a year so the impact isn’t that great overall.  Really?  So where then is the advantage of building in an isolated location like Arden Hills?  Existing businesses in a location like Minneapolis would both benefit from and support the needs of a new stadium without the risk of building new facilities that may or may not draw the kind of business they need to be profitable.

If our hundreds of millions of our tax money is going to support a new stadium for a private business, we need to be careful to make it a smart investment that serves as many public interests as is possible and not the singular interest of the Minnesota Vikings.

Someone tell us again the advantages of the Arden Hills site.  So far the only argument that rings true is space available there.  That alone does not make Arden Hills the right place for a project like this.

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