A correspondent recently wrote an essay asking several questions, ” … Okay, I am going to educate. It’s not a position. Its just facts. China has been crushing entire industries in the US through unfair trade practices. Every single time they do this entire work forces are put on the street. This has been going on for a very long time. What do you propose to change this behavior? Why was it not a shame when the Chinese put out of business the entire solar panel production industry in the US by paying Chinese companies money so they could sell the panels at a steep discount and loss, bankrupting the entire rest of the worlds industry? Why did you not call our past President an a-hole every time China reversed engineered a patented technology and flooded the market with the knockoffs? Why are you not concerned about the large scale poisoning of our medicinal remedies due to counterfeit pills? Again, I will ask you…what should Trump do in order to force China to abide by the international laws they agreed to?….”

Perhaps in a sarcastic mood, I first wrote, “Does Dropping dead count ?” I know that that reply was a cheap shot, that I should erase, but trying to discuss issues rationally with most die hard trump supporters has turned out to be a waste of time.

Donald trump was known to people living in New York to be a pompous ass long before he got the grandiose idea that he could be anyone’s president. Yes, I was born there a year or so earlier and only about ten miles away from his birthplace. I knew that he had a solid reputation for mendacity, serial adultery, general incompetence in his business dealings and the conscience of a dog in heat. Not only did he run valid businesses into the ground (think casinos) but created and looted several bogus enterprises that he started and usually bore his name.

What surprises me is that good solid people from the mid-west, people usually suspicious of Eastern “city slickers” selling snake oil, when most must have known in their heart of hearts that he was at best a TV character in a somewhat successful TV series accepted his perfidy as a breath of fresh air, but they did and some still do stand in line for another taste of the poison kool-aide.

I keep hoping that enough voters will have realized how badly they have been hoodwinked to stay home next November either from personal shame or to choose a different candidate to vote for. There is hope as I see so many erstwhile solid Republicans deciding to not run for re-election in 2020.

Now as for the allegation that the Obama administration did nothing to counter the reasonably valid list of abusive behaviors that China’s social mores accepts as normal, perhaps you might consider the Asia-Pacific Trade agreement that the Obama people had been working on for quite some time. Ignoring trumps bluster and deceit for a moment, that agreement was designed to isolate China from the rest of the Far Eastern trading nations. If it had finally been consummated it would have brought pressure on China to amend its ways, without destroying our national industries quietly and without excessive bombast, which has only succeeded in now making China dig in its heels and create local laws that have successfully had a deleterious effect on the very businesses Obama’s merry men (and women) sought to protect.

It seems that the only reason that trump withdrew from the negotiations was his irritation to have been proved demonstrably wrong about Obama’s birthplace. Perhaps there was, and still is, some residual anger at being compared unfavorably to a well-educated, compassionate Afro-American. Spiteful petty revenge at having been proved totally wrong in public is no way to run a railroad, or a federal government. It will take the next president years of hard work and a healthy dollop of the wisdom of Solomon to repair the international harm that trump and his toadies have accomplished, that is, provided that we do hold honest elections and actually do have a lawful president.

Try to consider the attempts to abandon NATO and SEATO, NAFTA and the absolutely necessary Climate Accords, betray allies and even worse, sharing a bed with dictators, will have on future international relations. What sane foreign leader will agree easily to send his or her nations youth to fight and possibly as an ally of the USA again.

What nation’s agricultural or industrial minister will join us in another attempt to build a peaceful trade wall around China or any other violator of international trade or patent norms. “Can’t trust those Americans, they might just find another trump to insert a knife in our backs,” will cross the mind of every minister of any country that entertains siding with the USA in war or peace, in trade or any complex negotiations. And that ignores the work of restructuring our laws to protect human rights, establish justice for both the rich as well as the often abused poor, undo the effects of global climate change, as well as try to secure the blessings of equality, liberty and perhaps fraternity on ourselves and our posterity.

Charlie Jensen

Copyright 2020, Foc’sle Chatter, All Rights Reserved

The Donald lies?

Yes, the Donald lies, a lot.

The Donald lies about big things,

And also about the smallest stings.

The Donald lies in the mornings,

And in the evenings too.

He lies about the colors,

Claiming up is down and red is blue.

He lies about his money,

He lies about his debt.

If the Donald’s lips are moving,

He’s lying, you can bet.

The Donald goes to sleep at night,

In his lonely three post bed.

The bottom wide enough for two fat feet,

The top to fit his swollen head.

He dreams a lonely little dream,

About the words he said,

And the people he’s misled.

He fashions even bigger lies,

About the day ahead.

When the Donald gets caught lying,

And there’s proof that he has lied,

The Donald lies, about his lying,

And blames another by his side.

The Donald’s an inveterate liar,

And such he always was.

He can’t recall all of his tales,

When questioned, his memory fails .

Then cornered, he shakes and quakes,

And, of course, prevaricates.

He never takes the blame,

Believe him and you risk your name,

Because the Donald has no shame.

For Donald, lying is a way of life,

He lied while cheating on his trusting wives.

Friends pretend to believe his newest lies,

Who wants to tell a bully what is true,.

Expose their back to his verbal knife,

And bring  on endless personal strife.

“Of course I trust you Donnie,” they reply,

“You wouldn’t stoop to harm a helpless fly,”

“Or sully your good name with such a lie.”

Sure Donnie, “Sans toi, que je serais?”

Charlie Jensen

Copyright 2019, Foc’sle Chatter, All Rights Reserved

As I see it, our political system has been clunking along for many years with some broken parts, like an old beat up and frequently patched sailboat still floating but barely able to beat to windward. Trump is a symptom of this malfunction. A significant minority has felt left behind and locked out so that listening to Trump’s political Elmer Gantry routine of promises allowed them to think he could do something (Drain the Swamp ) ignoring the calls from the NYC metro area Easterners who have been long aware that Trump has been one of the slitheriest swamp dwellers ever to come along.

They, mostly middle Americans, have long been suspicious of New Yorkers with their fast talk and brisk manners, so they paid no heed to reports of the people who knew Trump for what he was and still is. They decided to give him a chance. After voting him in and being called ignorant hillbillies and flatland Okies they feel they have to stick by him or risk the shame of admitting that they made one of the greatest mistakes in the history of Democracy. I am hoping that once in the privacy of the ballot booth they may vote their conscience and we will be free of this deranged megalomaniac.

Another group is the Evangelicals who have sold their souls to the devil in a Faustian compact, twisting the simple meaning of the basic Christian theology that is from the famous sermon on the mount, which I am sure most can recite from end to end and must haunt some of them at night when they are alone with their true deity.

“Our destruction, if it come at all, will be from…the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence.”

Daniel Webster – 1782-1852, One of the greatest orators of American history, he served as a U.S. Congressman, Senator, and as Secretary of State for three Presidents

I cannot believe that these otherwise decent people, having seen Trump’s policies in action against the hungry, the injured, the helpless and often the nearly naked survivors of a daunting trek across the length of Mexico to knock on our door, will be able to sleep in peace. Again pride and possibly a sense of shame and guilt may prevent them from public disclosure of their misgivings, but in the ballot booth which may be secret from mankind but in their thinking is not from their God, many may hope that they can make amends before it is too late.

Charlie Jensen

Copyright 2019, Foc’sle Chatter, All Rights Reserved

One of the weaknesses of a democracy is the uninformed or under educated voter.  Usually such people fail to make the effort to vote and often they split their voting pattern between different candidates thus largely cancelling out their effect.  But there is always the danger that some demagogue will manage to gather them up on a single issue to become a large enough constituency to affect an election, either positively, as in those who flocked to the Goldwater party in 1964, and its defeat, or negatively as in 2016.  

Goldwater’s defeat led to a congress that could and did enact several beneficial changes in the laws and society.  One feature of the people who tilted that election is that they have remained about 38% of the polled population regardless of the issue discussed, or the obscenely improper actions of their Pied Piper.  Combining that solid base with any significant proportion of the remaining 60% will give a wanna-be tyrant the power to change the nation’s future.  

If the forces of sanity manage to regain control of the levers of power in the next election the election laws can be modified to limit the effect of this cadre of single issue voters. Some change in, or even the elimination of, the Electoral College is needed to prevent another minority president.  The latter will require an amendment to the Constitution, a creaky, cranky, out of date system designed for the conditions of a widely scattered rural population over two hundred years ago when information took weeks to spread from New Hampshire to Georgia.  Obviously that condition does not exist in today’s twitterized internet age.

The only vestige of value of the Electoral College is the debatable issue of providing smaller, very rural states some influence in the presidential election, which actually seems to have created a situation where the power of the votes of Rhode Island, Wyoming or Delaware’s citizens exceed those of a Texan or Californian.  

Another problem that requires some alteration is the results of the Citizen’s United Court decision, as the effects of secret donations by large corporate sponsors and the overly wealthy “two percent” have created a system where they have too much influence on prospective candidates, as well as apparent ownership on incumbent legislators running for re-election.

Within Congress, enforceable rules must be written to prevent one party from denying a person nominated for a judicial position the prompt and fair hearing process they deserve.  Add to that some limitation on the executive from staffing of sensitive agency positions with “acting” heads for more than a reasonable period of time.

Another weakness of the current set of working rules in Congress is the ability to prevent proposed legislation from getting a hearing or more importantly the initial floor vote that would send a bill to a committee for public investigation and evaluation.  Over the years both parties when in power have taken undue advantage of some of the sometimes archaic rules to prevent the prompt and appropriate handling of the people’s business, and that needs to change.

The same is true with gerrymandering.  While generally a state function, districts should be contiguous, and drawn without excessive political influence on their lines.  Over the last 240 years this nation’s population has grown from a few million settlers scattered along the Atlantic coast to a vibrant diverse nation stretching across the continent, and reaching across the Pacific Ocean.  It did not do that, despite its prolific families, by birthrate alone.  It has taken in the best and brightest survivors of, wars, pogroms, famines, disasters and most violent events in history, who have grown and returned untold dividends to their adopted nation.

Our current birth rate is barely perceptible above the replacement rate and apparently falling to the point that without immigration our population will decline.  That means less workers to man the factories, farms and businesses, less clever minds to maintain our admired creative work force, less discoveries and eventually will affect our place in the world.  That does not mean “Open Borders” but borders with doors that do open for the worthy peoples of all levels of society.

To do that we need a legislature and executive who are intelligent, well-educated and moral. Should that miracle occur, the nation can and will continue to prosper and lead the world to new heights of prosperity, even peace and survival of the planet.  This coming election may be the turning point of the twenty first century.

Charlie Jensen

Copyright 2019, Foc’sle Chatter, All Rights Reserved