That $15 an hour minimum wage

 Getting $15 an hour is groovy, IF you stay employed.  Retailers are tooling up to replace workers with automation.  The Tilton Mcdonalds is all automatied right now.  You walk in the door and see a dozen giant touch screens.  You touch what ever it is you want to eat, slide your credit card into the slot, and bingo, your order pops up back in the kitchen.  Cashiers and counter people are gone.  Next they will automate the kitchen jobs.

   The big box stores (Wallymart, Home Despot, Lowes, Shaws and the like) are training us customers to work the bar code scanners and pay with credit cards.  Bye Bye cashiers jobs.  

   For that matter, Bye Bye to the little local shops and eateries that cannot afford to buy all that automation.  Get ready to eat only in the big chains, McDonalds, Applebees, 99, and such.  Tasty they are. 

Entry level jobs that currently pay less than $15 will just go away 'cause the employer will be losing money on them when he has to pay $15 an hour.  It's gonna be tougher for kids entering the workforce to find a job at all. 

The right to keep and bear arms.

 You would think that elected representatives, both federal and state, would be solid responsible citizens.  Just the kind of people you would trust to carry a gun.  And yet we have Nancy Pelosi down in DC and the Democratic leadership in the NH house (last session) putting in metal detectors and forbidding concealed carry in the NH house.  

   Every so often terrorists work their way into the visitor's gallery or the legislative chambers.  It would be nice if those terrorists were met with gunfire from their targets.  In Concord NH the reps have to walk considerable distances to their parked cars, often after dark.  I know a fair number of female reps would feel better about taking a walk on dark city streets if they were carrying a gun.  Just in case.  

   We should not be denying the right to keep and bear arms to our most responsible citizens. 

Cobra Kai, TV series from Karate Kid

 So I watched the first disc of the series.  It picks up the story from Karate Kid I movie 20 years later.  Daniel LaRusso is married and a successful owner of a string of auto dealerships.  Johnny Lawrence (Daniel-san's opponent in the big karate tournament) , is not doing so well, in fact is unemployed.  He some how gets the money to start up the old Cobra Kai dojo.  Some amusing scenes of Johnny doing the hard ass act on his Karate students.  The plot is shaky bordering on non existent.  The chicks are not all that pretty.  Mr. Miyagi is dead and buried and the series needs him, or a replacement, badly.  Not as good as the first two Karate Kid movies from years ago. 

15000 National Guard troops for inauguration security??

 I will grant that after last Wednesday we probably need to beef up security.  But with the inauguration parade canceled for corona virus do we need a full division of troops?  That's more troops than we have in Afghanistan.  Hopefully they won't issue live ammunition like they did at Kent State years ago.

America needs a press that we can believe in

 The average citizen has a life to lead, children to raise, a job to go to.  These ( and other things) fill most of his time.  He lacks the time and the skills to dig down and find out what is really happening.  Most of us average citizens get our news from NPR (NHPR) while driving to work, and off the TV in the evening.  For a democracy to work, the voters need to know what is going on.  And American news media have little to nothing about what is really happening.  They have a lot of commentary, and what little news we get is heavily slanted.  Stories that support "the narrative" get lots of coverage.  Stories that contradict the narrative get buried.  And the citizens know this, and hence don't know what's going on, and so vote their built in prejudices, which ain't always good for the country.

  We really need a trustworthy press, and we don't have it.  And we know that.  Fox News and the Wall St Journal are perhaps the best of 'em.  PBS ain't what it used to be back when it was the Mac Neill-Lehrer news hour.   But we need more reliable news sources.  And we don't have them. 

America needs to get off the dime.

 

America is split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats.  The Georgia elections were very close, nearly 50-50.  The US Senate has 50 Republicans and 50 Democrats.  The US House has the narrowest margin in years, only about 5 more Democrats than Republicans.  For a body of 425 members, 5 is very close.  As a result or this even Steven split, it is impossible to get anything done.  Congress has done very little in recent years.  They need to do something about the DACA children.  They need to do immigration reform.  And a lot of other things.  But, being split so evenly, they don’t have the votes to pass anything.  

   The Republicans need to attract more voters.  Trump did some good work in this area.  He attracted a lot of union voters, a lot of black and minority voters.  It wasn’t quite enough to get him re elected, but it was close. 

   American political parties run on ideology, a platform, and personalities.  Republican ideology comes from the Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal”.  Republicans were started as the party to free the slaves.  Republicans fought the Civil War.  In the 1960’s Republicans passed the Civil rights acts.  Republicans believe in free enterprise and capitalism as the system that creates vast amounts of wealth.  Under free enterprise factories and farms and everything else is owned by individuals or groups of individuals (corporations) and the owners are strongly motivated to run them efficiently. Republicans believe in American exceptionalism, the notion that America has a glorious history of which we should be proud. 

    Party platforms were more specific lists of laws the party would support, and other laws the party would oppose.  In recent years both parties have pretty much stopped doing platforms.  Partly because it is hard to come up with a platform that everybody in the party approves.  Partly because advocating specific acts gains the party more enemies than it gains them friends.  And probably other reasons as well.  Net result, no platforms for this last election. 

  And finally, personalities.  Right now the biggest personality in the Republican Party is Donald Trump.  He will be around for quite a while.  Nobody else in the party, Cruz, Rubio, Graham, McConnell, Romney, and you-name-him is as big as Trump.  Unfortunately Trump has as many bitter enemies as he has die hard supporters. 

   Looking at this I can suggest Republicans need to talk about the party ideology more often.  They need to get a platform out.  They need to recruit more personalities, especially electable personalities.  Republicans used to get personalities from the military, Eisenhower, Powell, and McCain for example.  We don’t seem to have that many military men with strong reputations to recruit as we used to.

Beat The Press. An hour about the Capitol riots

 Chuck Todd was in full voice this morning.  Spent the entire one hour show talking about Wednesday's Capitol Riot.  Blamed it all on Trump.  Called for impeachment, a bill of attainder, everything.  

  Did not mention the three resignations of capitol security chiefs.  No mention of the video showing Capitol police standing back and letting the rioters stream into the building.    No mention of the Rasmussen poll showing Trump's approval rating rising since Wednesday.