Seventy Years Ago: Christmas Greetings From The White House, 1943

On Christmas Eve, 1943, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had only been back in Washington for a week after a grueling transatlantic voyage to conferences with Allies in Cairo and Teheran. That evening, he gave one of his famous "fireside chats" with the American people, reporting on the conferences, the prospects for victory and our vision for the future.

"We here in the United States had better be sure," he emphasized, "that when our soldiers and sailors do come home they will find an America in which they are given full opportunities for education, and rehabilitation, social security, and employment and business enterprise under the free American system -- and that they will find a Government which, by their votes as American citizens, they have had a full share in electing." Fireside Chat 27, December 24, 1943.

That was a vision that would take decades to perfect. It took the Voting Rights Act of 1965. It took the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. It took the Help America Vote Act.

It continues to take the efforts of countless election officials and volunteers to protect and defend the idea of a Government in which every citizen has a full share in electing.

It takes continued dedication and vigilance.

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - Complete With Chesnuts

Here's a link to a nice little Christmas story.

Bradley Flinn, August 4, 1969- December 20, 2013

Last night Bradley Flinn, owner of S/V the Shire, died at Pitt Memorial Hospital.

Those who knew him knew a very nice man. He was a Navy veteran of the Gulf War, who lived on his pink-hulled boat. He was a libertarian, but not as doctrinaire as some. I enjoyed talking to him. He had a wide range of interests. In an earlier age, he might have been called an autodidact. But that could apply to anyone with an inquiring mind.

We knew he had health problems, but didn't know how serious.

Over the years, he had anchored his boat past the bridge over Smith Creek and rowed into Oriental every day. When he developed a rotator cuff injury, he had to move the boat closer to the dinghy dock. He planned to move back up the creek, but for a long time the water level was too high. By the time the level went down, he was unable to make the move for other reasons.

Brad was a bit eccentric. Completely within the normal range for the Town of Oriental.

Rest in Peace.

Today's News and Observer prints an editorial concerning the income gap between ordinary working Americans and the super wealthy, explaining why the gap is holding back our economy.

It isn't about fairness - it is about what works best:

"To boost economy, reduce the income gap

December 17, 2013 Updated 6 hours ago

  The Associated Press surveyed more than three dozen economists to find out what most shopkeepers could have told it: The richer getting richer doesn’t lead to more buying.

"The rich are enjoying a surge in wealth from robust stock market gains, but it’s only when low- and middle-income people have more to spend that the economy rises, the economists said.
“What you want is a broader spending base,” said Scott Brown, chief economist at Raymond James, a financial advisory firm. “You want more people spending money.”
What’s wanted – broad gains in income – is not what the great majority of Americans will be getting this Christmas. Pay for low- and middle-income earners is barely rising, and the gap between the rich and the rest shows no sign of slowing its expansion. The result of flat incomes for most is flat consumption overall.
The most recent census figures reveal, the AP reported, “that the average income for the wealthiest 5 percent of U.S. households, adjusted for inflation, has surged 17 percent in the past 20 years. By contrast, average income for the middle 20 percent of households has risen less than 5 percent.”
What may be changing is that growing income inequality is moving from a moral debate about fairness to a practical discussion about its economic effect. That’s a good change. President Obama has moved the discussion that way. With luck, the mid-term election will take it further."

To find out more, read the AP story here:

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/12/17/3467102/ap-survey-us-income-gap-is-holding.html

The truth is that New Deal programs and the so-called safety net have always been about making the economy work better for everyone. Businessmen in our poorest states are the biggest beneficiaries from putting more money in the pockets of workers, whether currently employed or not.

From Prisoner To Head Of State

The funeral of Nelson Mandela extolled the virtues of a man who spent years in prison and later became his county's head of state.

Not only that, Mandela presided over a peaceful transition.

There have been few such great men in recent history, but there have been others. Last Sunday I posted a link to an article about the president of Uruguay, a former Tupamaro guerrilla, who spent years in prison.

Yesterday's New York Times published an article about Vaclav Havel, dissident writer and playright during the communist period of Czech history, who spent years in prison and became four-term president of the Czech Republic. Havel was a powerful voice for democracy. He should be remembered as another powerful advocate for his people.

Meanwhile, Just Outside Montevideo, A Frugal President

Jose Mujica, president of Uruguay, leads with no frills.

"If anyone could claim to be leading by example in an age of austerity, it is José Mujica, Uruguay's president, who has forsworn a state palace in favour of a farmhouse, donates the vast bulk of his salary to social projects, flies economy class and drives an old Volkswagen Beetle." The Guardian.

This is a man and a country we know little about. Maybe we should change that. Here is a beginning.

Beautiful Writing From Abroad - Almudena Grandes Hernandez

Here is a link to a beautiful and moving piece of writing in today's New York Times.

Here is the person who wrote it:

Almudena Grandes

{Madrid, 1960}

© Pep Avila

Almudena Grandes Hernández nació en Madrid en 1960 y estudió Geografía e Historia en la Universidad Complutense de esta ciudad.
Vinculada al mundo editorial como escritora de encargo, adquirió el reconocimiento del gran público con Las edades de Lulú, que recibió el XI premio de narrativa erótica La Sonrisa Vertical en 1989.
Su segunda novela es Te llamaré Viernes y su tercera fue Malena es un nombre de tango. La cuarta, Modelos de mujer, es una recopilación de siete cuentos publicados anteriormente en varias revista y periódicos.
En 1998 publicó Atlas de geografía humana.

I would like to read Almudena Grandes' article in the original language.

It is about dignity.

The Spanish used to know what poor people always understood - no one can steal your dignity; only you can abandon it yourself.

Observations By Tony Tharp

I thought I would post without comment a link to Tony Tharp's most recent comments about Oriental here.

Bear in mind he is writing from the wilds of Lake Okeechobee, not far south of the Okeefenokee Swamp, from the decks of S/V Yoknapatawpha II.

Seventy Years Ago: FDR Aboard USS Iowa Enroute Teheran

We last left the president sailing aboard USS Iowa on November 14th, 1943, on his way to Teheran. To bring readers up to date, here are the daily logs of the president's activities:

November 20th, 1943;
November 21st;
November 22nd;
November 23rd;
November 24th;
November 25th;
November 26th;
November 27th;
November 28th;
November 29th;
November 30th;
December 1st;
December 2d;
December 3rd;
December 4th;
December 5th;
December 6th;
December 7th;
December 8th;
December 9th;
December 10th;
December 11th;
December 12th;
December 13th;
December 14th;
December 15th;
December 16th;
December 17th.

My comments:
FDR's travel to Teheran and participation in tense conferences in Cairo and Teheran was far from a pleasure cruise. This was hard work, and would have challenged even much younger men in better physical condition. A little more than a year after completing the Teheran conference, once again FDR would make another transatlantic voyage through the war zone, this time to Malta and to the war-ravaged Crimea for another conference with Churchill and Stalin. FDR left Washington January 23rd, 1945 and returned February 28th. The following day, March 1st, the president addressed a joint session of Congress, reporting on the Yalta conference. He died six weeks later during a visit to Warm Springs, GA.

Does History Repeat Itself Or Just Rhyme?

Mark Twain is said to have observed that history doesn't repeat itself - but it does rhyme.

Many of us read history not only for entertainment, but also in hopes of learning useful lessons about our own time and place. We seek to uncover history's lessons.

Those purported lessons are brought to our attention by journalists, political figures and academics on major anniversaries of important events.

One such event is the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on June 28, 1914 by Gavrilo Princip, a Serbian nationalist in the town of Sarajevo. That was a shot not only heard round the world, but one that has reverberated now for an entire century.

Margaret MacMillan, professor of history at Oxford, University, has contributed an essay for the Brookings Institution examining the lessons of that event and the ensuing war.

I have read many of the diplomatic papers leading up to the war, tramped across the battlefields and pondered the issue of "war guilt" as it was called. After the 1918 armistice and collapse of the German government, the Western Allies insisted on assigning all of the guilt for the war on Germany.

I have concluded that no European power was without guilt. Nor was any power imbued with great resources of wisdom.

But the guilt at the outset plainly belongs to Serbia.

Professor MacMillan makes the case in her essay that the times in 1914 were much like our own.

We should read it as a cautionary tale.

But read it!

Education vs Training

"One trains for the known, but educates for the unknown...."

Thomas Ricks

Liberty

“If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

-- George Orwell

Seventy-Two Years Ago: Pearl Harbor And Japanese Politics

Today's New York Times prints an op-ed article by historian Eri Hotta addressing similarities and differences between today's Japan and that of seventy-two years ago. Her article is very much worth reading. I also look forward to reading her book: Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy.

Japan in 1941 was not a military dictatorship or a totalitarian regime, and it never became one. Neither was it a democracy. It was, instead, a society built on strong networks of obligation, with decision making by consensus rather than by majority vote. The persistent belief that Japan in 1941 was a military dictatorship grows out of a deep misunderstanding of the way Japanese society worked. Ruth Benedict's wartime study of Japanese society, The Crysanthemum And The Sword, might have deepened our understanding, but it came out too late and has never informed our retrospective understanding of events leading to war. I look forward to reading Ms. Hotta's two books on the period.

 
 

Seventy Years Ago: Thirty-One Knot Burke

Thanksgiving eve, 1943, Admiral Halsey ordered Captain Arleigh Burke, Commander Destroyer Squadron 23, with five Fletcher class destroyers, to intercept a Japanese squadron of five destroyers near the island of Buka in the Northern Solomons. One of Burke's destroyers had a minor engineering problem, previously reported, which limited speed to 30 knots instead of the normal top speed of 38 knots. Captain Burke reported to Halsey that he was proceeding at 31 knots. Halsey directed him to proceed to point Uncle: “THIRTY-ONE KNOT BURKE GET ATHWART THE BUKA-RABUL EVACUATION LINE ABOUT 35 MILES WEST OF BUKA….”

Thus was Burke's "Little Beaver" squadron dispatched to the Battle of Cape St. George and into US Naval history.

A little more than a year earlier, near Guadalcanal, the night of August 8-9, 1942, Japanese Admiral Mikawa hastily assembled a force of seven cruisers and a destroyer near Buka to counter the US/Australian invasion force of eight cruisers and fifteen destroyers at Guadalcanal. Mikawa's force lacked radar, while the allied cruisers and several of the destroyers had radar. But the Japanese had trained for night combat and they were equipped with the world's best torpedoes. US torpedoes had not been adequately tested and proved unreliable and ineffective.

When the clash began, it took about a half hour for the Japanese to sink four allied heavy cruisers, damage two destroyers and kill over a thousand allied sailors. Japan escaped with minimal damage and a loss of 58 sailors.

It was the US Navy's worst defeat ever in a sea battle.

Captain Burke's destroyers were all equipped with radar and knew how to use it at night. The problems with American torpedoes had been fixed. By late 1943, the crews were battle-experienced and, more important, the officers knew how to effectively use the new equipment.

Burke's squadron found the Japanese, sank three destroyers and damaged another, pursuing them in a long stern chase. Burke withdrew before daylight, as the squadron was well inside range of Japanese land based aircraft.

When Arleigh Burke later became Chief of Naval Operations, he wrote a personal, characteristically modest, account of the Battle of Cape St. George for Parade magazine here.

John Warner Cox: August 13, 1941 - November 26, 2013

My brother John fought pancreatic cancer for nearly three years. He taught us how to live through such a time. How to seize the day for whatever the day offers. An inspiration to us all. He lived his life from beginning to end with great good humor. When he learned there were no further treatment options, he began planning for the end, including writing his obituary. When I visited him last month in Utah, he was still refining it. Now it is finished and is on line here: http://jandjutah.wordpress.com/

Affordable Care Act - Medicaid

In a recent New York Times op-ed piece, columnist Timothy Egan describes the refusal to expand Medicaid as the South's new "lost cause." He makes it plain that this is irrational, but he rather dances around the reason motivating southern states to reject an obviously good deal.

Ed Kilgore, writing in the Washington Monthly, is more direct. Calling the decision to reject Medicaid expansion the "pure meanness litmus test," Kilgore explains what this is about: "...states refusing the Medicaid expansion are doing so on grounds that they don’t want their own citizens to benefit from it. And since opposition has centered in the South, there’s not any real doubt a big motive has been a continuation of that region’s longstanding effort to—choose your verb—(a) reduce dependence on government among, or (b) keep down—those people."

In the 1930's, it was the same region, then in thrall to racist democrats (who have since become republicans),  that made sure the new social security program would exclude "agricultural workers."

There will be serious collateral damage inflicted on an already strapped health care system in the South. The health care industry understands this.

Seventy Years Ago: At Sea Off Tarawa - USS Liscome Bay

From initial action until the end of the battle, it took America's forces 76 hours to conquer the tiny but well-fortified island of Betio at Tarawa. Over 4,500 Japanese perished in the assault. 1,696 Americans lost their lives. Forty percent of Americans killed died the morning of November 23, when a Japanese submarine launched a torpedo, striking Liscome Bay near its store of aircraft ordinance. She sank in 20 minutes, carrying 687 officers and men with her.

The war in the Pacific was still very much a naval war.

Seventy Years Ago: 20-22 November 1943 - Marines On Tarawa

The assault on the island of Betio, Tarawa Atoll, began November 20. Betio, in the Gilberts, was to be a stepping stone to the Marianas, from which new B-29 heavy bombers could attack Japan.

Rear Admiral Tomaniri Sichero, an experienced engineer, had nine months to build elaborate defensive works. He was replaced in command by an experienced combat officer, RADM Keiji Shibazaki. The Japanese had over 4,500 troops in carefully prepared positions.

Attacking forces were the largest invasion force yet assembled in the Pacific: 17 aircraft carriers, 12 battleships, 8 heavy cruisers, 4 light cruisers, 66 destroyers and 36 transport ships with 35,000 troops.

After a heavy bombardment of the island by aircraft and guns, things began to fall apart when the Higgins boats approached the landing beaches. Tidal predictions were inaccurate and the boats grounded well offshore. Withering Japanese fire killed many marines as they struggled in to the beaches.

It took three days to win the battle for Betio.

Here is an account of the struggle.

Mark Thoma Reminds Us Of The State Of The Labor Market

We have a lot of headline activity every time the "unemployment rate" goes up or down. But what matters much more is the overall percentage of working age population that is employed. Here is that picture, and the ratio is going down.

Then there is the issue of wages and salaries. As Jim Hightower observes, "It isn't about jobs. Slaves had jobs!"

The Difficult Is Done At Once; The Impossible Takes A Bit Longer

Some say it was the US Army Corps of Engineers during World War II who adopted the slogan, "the difficult is done at once - the impossible takes a bit longer."

I can't vouch for that, but I can testify that the slogan accurately expresses the attitude of those who went off to that war.

No task is truly impossible.

My father's outfit, the 27th Air Depot Group, was set down in the jungle outside of Port Moresby, New Guinea, with a few bulldozers and a dismantled sawmill. That was in December, 1942. They built their own hangers, barracks, roads, runways, washing machines, and anything else they needed. At the end of the supply line, they dismantled damaged aircraft for spare parts and rebuilt, redesigned and improved the aircraft in their custody.

In October and November of 1943, they mounted sustained air attacks on the main Japanese base at Rabaul. Operation Cartwheel, it was called.

The original goal was to capture the base at Rabaul. By August, the concept changed into a plan to neutralize and bypass Rabaul. By the end of November, General Kenney's 5th Air Force operating from New Guinea and Admiral Halsey's aircraft carriers had neutralized Japanese air forces out of Rabaul.

Life Is Short But Art Is Long

Thomas Jefferson Scott, artist, architect and designer, was fond of quoting Hippocrates' observation that life is short but art is long. Our lives are richer because Tom Scott shared both his life and his art with us.

Tom's friends and family gathered last Sunday at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, to celebrate that life and share reminiscences of a life well lived.

It was a joyful time.

Here is a link to his obituary, printed earlier this year in the Baltimore Sun.

Liz and I were honored to be his friends.

Seventy Years Ago: November 14, 1943

November 14, 1943  

In a freak accident, President Roosevelt, Generals Marshall and Arnold, Admirals Leahy and King, plus scores of distinguished politicians, and army, naval and air force strategists came under fire while traveling to the the Tehran Conference on board the battleship Iowa. While running a torpedo drill, the US destroyer William D. Porter was targeting the Iowa's #2 magazine, a live torpedo was ejected and headed for the battleship. After maneuvering, the torpedo detonated 1200 feet aft of Iowa in her wake turbulence. When the incident was concluded, Air Force General Hap Arnold leaned over to Fleet Commander Admiral King and asked, "Tell me Ernest, does this happen often in your Navy?"

Oriental Town Board Meeting November 13, 2013

I attended last night's meeting of Oriental's Town Board.

I'm not quite sure why I keep going. Possibly because I believe in democracy and think everyone should take part. Possibly because I remain puzzled about why so little of importance gets done, why so much of the activity is expended on trivialities and so little on planning for the future.

You can learn a bit by reading Town Dock's account:

"Oriental’s Town Board met last night. Among other things, the Board okayed, in a 4-1 vote, the lettering for a Town Hall dedication plaque that will list the Town Board members and the Town Manager at the time of the renovation. Cost: upwards of $875 (on top of the $160 spent on an earlier rendition the Board rejected.) Commissioner Larry Summers said after the meeting that he voted against it because “I don’t believe in self-aggrandizement.” He said it was also, “quite a bit of money.”

"Earlier in the meeting, the Board put off spending money on 20 chairs for the public to sit on the Town Hall meeting room. Some commissioners said they thought the price too high. The chairs, from Staples, were listed as $54 apiece.

"It was also stated at the meeting that the dock the Town got in the Chris Fulcher land swap cannot be extended now — it’s not CAMA that decides if it can be made longer, as first thought. Turns out it’s up to the Corps of Engineers, whose review is seen as a more onerous process. The dock will stop at 80 feet. The town’s already spent $12,000 to have planks laid and other modifications."

But that's not all. The board held a public hearing on an amendment to the GMO "for clarification," the mayor explained. Balderdash! The purpose of the amendment was to "get" one of our citizens. This was never clearly explained, but one of the commissioners let slip the true objective.

A good question to ask at one of these hearings about an amendment is: "what is the problem to which this is the solution?"

We should be about fixing the town's figurative and literal potholes, and not pursuing personal vendettas.

Is that too much to ask? Maybe it is.

America's Eleven Nations: A Map

In an earlier post, I made reference to Colin Woodard's article analyzing his breakdown of the eleven nations into which he sees America divided. I might quibble with some of his analysis, but on the whole it seems close to the mark. How would I know? I have lived in and have family connections to ten of Woodard's eleven nations. What's missing? Only New Netherlands. Even there, I have ancestors who immigrated to New Amsterdam about 1628. My wife's ancestors immigrated to Nouvelle France about the same time. And our grandsons are native Americans.

So we have seen it all, up close and personal.

Seventy Years Ago: November 12, 1943 - USS Iowa (BB-61)

November 12, 1943, President Roosevelt and his senior advisers traveled on the President's yacht Potomac to the Norfolk area to board USS Iowa (BB-61). Destination: Teheran. Purpose: strategic meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.

Security measures were elaborate. See the description here.

Iowa was fitted out with a bathtub in the Captain's quarters for the president's comfort. It remains aboard to this day.

This was not a peacetime cruise - German submarines and aircraft still menaced the seas.

USS Iowa - our newest, best armored and most powerful battleship, was the safest platform available for the president.

One Nation, Indivisible? Not Exactly

I wasn't pleased with the results of last Tuesday's municipal election in Oriental. That makes three elections in a row that I found disappointing, but I am not discouraged. My adult life has been spent defending democracy, and I still believe in it. But the older I get, the more I understand Winston Churchill's remark that democracy is the worst system of government, except for all the others that have ever been tried.

We need to remember, though, that our form of democracy is not the only possible form.

Can we get better (more democratic) results with a little tweaking, or do we need more fundamental restructuring? Maybe not.

Last week, I received in the mail my copy of the Fall, 2013 alumni magazine from Tufts University. It included an article by a 1991 graduate, Colin Woodard, entitled "Up in Arms." "The battle lines of today's debates over gun control, stand-your-ground laws, and other violence-related issues," the heading declared, "were drawn centuries ago by America's early settlers."

Woodard looks at all of North America, dividing it into eleven identifiable nations: Yankeedom, New Netherlands, The Midlands, Tidewater, Greater Appalachia, Deep South, El Norte, The Left Coast, The Far West, New France, and First Nation. The Washington Post asks, "which of the11 American nations do you live in" and includes a link to the article. It is well worth reading. Building on the work of historian David Hackett Fisher, whose seminal work of cultural history, Albion's Seed, calls attention to four original migrations from the British Isles, Woodard also cites later work by the social psychologist Nisbett, Robert Baller of the University of Iowa, Pauline Grosjean of Australia and others.

The most interesting feature of Woodard's article is a map depicting, county by county, the location of each of the eleven dominant "nations" today. It turns out that I have lived in eight of the eleven nations.

How does this play out in American political life?

Since 1990, I have followed the work of the Times-Mirror Center, now the Pew Research Center for The People and The Press. Following each presidential election for the past twenty-two years, the Center has surveyed the public for opinions on public policy. Each survey results in a "political typology," breaking down the population into anywhere from nine to eleven clusters of opinion.

The most recent typology, published here, breaks the population down into ten groupings. None is likely to correspond to First Nation, but I find it interesting that the number of the Pew Center's clusters is so close to the number of "nations" in Woodard's article. It would be very interesting to see a county by county breakdown of the Pew Center's typology.

Now The Town Of Oriental Has Three New Faces On The Board

It remains to be seen whether the outcome of yesterday's election is good news, bad news or just news.

I think the present board, which will be replaced next month, has not moved the Town forward in any way. It has been a disappointing board. It has been a disappointment both for what it has done and for what it has left undone.

The failings are those of individuals, but also failings resulting from the dynamics of small town politics.

Some of those failings can be addressed by changing the structure of Town government. It should have become clear over the last two years that the Board of Commissioners doesn't want to hear from the public.

We can change that. If we amend the town's charter so that at least a majority of the commissioners are elected to represent districts, every citizen would have at least one commissioner who would have to listen. It might also help to have the commissioners elect the mayor. That would certainly bedebatable, but we need to have that conversation.

Let's put the matter on the ballot by petition.

We can shoot for the May primary.

Tomorrow Is Election Day: Vote Wisely

I wish Oriental's voters could all have been at tonight's meeting of the Pamlico County Board of Commissioners. They would have seen the kind of board at work that the Town needs.

Those who have been following the issue know about Alan Propst's articles in Pamlico News and the Sun Journal exposing the effort of an out of state corporation to unlawfully convert a very large tract of land from wetlands to farmlands. If successful, this could result in vast profits for the firm and vast damage to the county.

The Pamlico County courtroom was filled with citizens concerned about the environmental damage this plan could cause.

As commissioner Chris Mele explained, the commissioners learned about the problem only two weeks ago. The last thing the county needed was the kind of dithering that has become routine in Oriental.

At tonight's meeting, the County Comissioners took three actions aimed at gaining control over the situation:
1. Approved a letter from the chair of the Board of Commissioners to the US Corps of Engineers detailing the reasons the Corps decision concerning the Trent Road parcel should be reexamined;
2. Referred a draft ordinance to the county planning board, which would require notification of such actions to the County Government as well as to state and federal officials;
3. Agreed to ask our legislators to seek a local bill clearly granting legal jurisdiction to the county over wetlands matters.

All three measures were unanimously approved. Clearly the commissioners had shared views with each other and with the county manager and had achieved a measure of agreement before the meeting. Only a few small details were discussed and quickly resolved.

Just as clearly, the County Commissioners were aware of public sentiment on the matter and arranged the agenda so that the problem could be presented to the board and the public.

It was a well-run meeting, addressing and engaging public concerns, and taking action.

Would that we had a mayor and Board of Commissioners in Oriental capable of such effective measures.

Affordable Care Act: What's The Real Problem?

Economist Brad DeLong calls attention to a piece by Jim Tankerslee in Ezra Klein's Blog. Tankerslee explains the problems poor workers in Rome, Georgia have with the ACA as "due to a quirk in the law."

DeLong makes it very plain that it is NOT due to the law. It IS due to a decision by Justice Roberts and his cohorts on the US Supreme Court, coupled with efforts by Republican Governors and State Legislators who intentionally sabotaged the law.

Here is how DeLong explains it:

"The phrases "because of a quirk in the health-care law, and the fact that Georgia declined to expand Medicaid coverage for low-income people like him, Rizer can’t qualify for a subsidy to buy coverage" are not adequate. What Tankersley means is:

1. The ACA provides subsidies for people with incomes more than 1/3 above the poverty level to afford insurance via the exchange-marketplace.
2. The ACA provides coverage for people with lower incomes via the expanded Medicaid program.
3. Chief Justice John Roberts and the other four right-wing justices broke this system by giving individual states the option not to accept the federal money to pay for the expansion of Medicaid.
4. This was a lawless and unforeseen action: no precedent for it in previous court decisions and no warrant for it in the constitution.
5. Because it was a lawless and unforeseen action, it had never struck the minds of anybody drafting the ACA that the John Roberts, C.J., and his Four Horsemen of the Constitution-in-Exile would do such a thing.
6. Thus people with incomes less than 1 1/3 times the poverty level are left high and dry: since they are supposed to be covered by expanded Medicaid, there is no language in the ACA allowing them to claim subsidies.
7. If Roberts, C.J., had been a public-spirited an intelligent man, he would have realized that if he was going to rewrite the ACA to break its Medicaid expansion provision, he also needed to rewrite the exchange subsidy provision to provide people with incomes less than 1 1/3 times the poverty level with access to subsidies.
8. Roberts, C.J., did not do this.
9. Perhaps Roberts simply wanted to harm people with incomes lower than 1 1/3 times poverty who lived in states that would pick up the ball not to expand Medicaid he had given them and run with it, on the theory that creating an aggrieved class for whom the ACA is clearly not working would redound to the political benefit of the Republican Party.
10. Perhaps Roberts did not understand what he was doing.
11. In any event, Roberts rewrote the ACA from the bunch--and so left people with incomes like Donald Rizen's in red states with governors and legislatures who fear the Tea Party out in the cold. All of numbers (1) through (11) are inside Tankersley's "quirk in the health-care law". I know that that is what is inside Tankersley's "quirk in the health-care law". But how many of Tankersley's readers will know that?
12. The state of Georgia did, indeed--in spite of the protests of doctors and hospitals that want Medicaid expansion so they don't have to keep playing the shell-game of cost-shifting in order to raise the resources to cover the treatment of the uninsured--did indeed refuse to expand Medicaid.
13. And that is how the Governor Nathan Deal, the legislature of Georgia, John Roberts, C.J., and the Four Horsemen of the Constitution-in-Exile casually #@#&^ed Donald Rizen, a fifty-something with a bad shoulder, and many other Americans as well. All of numbers (1) through (13) are inside Tankersley's "quirk in the health-care law, and the fact that Georgia declined to expand Medicaid". I know that's what those clauses in Tankersley's article are really saying. But how many of Tankersley's readers will know?
14. And then comes the end of Tankersley's article: "When he visited the federal health insurance exchange Web site, he found the cheapest policy available to him cost $200 a month — one quarter of his current salary. 'Obama', he said, 'he thinks that he’s helping things, but he ain’t'. He fished out a bruised green apple and tossed it aside. Only a few boxes were left." Could there be a crueler irony? The original ACA--the one that Pelosi and Reid passed and that Obama signed--provides Donald Rizen with health-insurance coverage (Medicaid, admittedly, but coverage) for free. It is Republicans John Roberts, Nathan Deal, the legislature, and the Four Horsemen who have casually #@#&^ed him. But who does he blame? He blames Barack Obama."

Make no mistake. That is the Republican scheme.

Some Thoughts On Oriental's Future - From A Candidate

Ben Cox has posted some thoughts on his facebook page. If you are thinking about supporting him, take a look here. If you aren't thinking about supporting him, you should think about changing your mind. What does he think should be done? The information is here.

You should also write in Lili Stern and Barbara Stockton. If you want things done to improve the future of Oriental, Barbara Stockton is the only Barbara to vote for.

While you are at it, cast a vote for Lori Wagner for mayor. You'll be glad you did.

Oriental Town Board Special Meeting

Without getting into all the details (you can read about it on Town Dock), yesterday's special meeting of the Town Board confirmed that not a single incumbent, including the mayor, should be reelected.

In a nutshell, the four members of the Town Board who attended refused to adopt the mayor's proposed motion to sell Town water to Wal-Mart with no conditions. Then they appointed a committee to "negotiate" with Wal-Mart  before they capitulate. Committees spread the responsibility around.

I intend to vote for Lori Wagoner for mayor, Ben Cox for commissioner, and to write in votes for Lili Stern and Barbara Stockton for commissioner.

For those concerned about "wasting" a write-in vote, I remind you that one current incumbent, Warren Johnson, won his seat on a write-in vote. A vote for a candidate who either can't or is unwilling to do the job is truly a wasted vote.

Oriental Race For Commissioner

As Ben Cox announced at last week's candidate forum, he has started a facebook page for his campaign. He has just added an important note relating to the Town's law suit concerning South Avenue.

The issues concerning rights of way may seem complicated, but they really aren't. Those who are curious and also who understand that commissioners should focus on the future of the Town as well as the present can read his fuller explanation here. I recommend it.

2013 Oriental NC Candidate Forum On Line

Now that Town Dock has put the audio recording of last Wednesday's candidate forum on line here, I no longer have to rely on reports by attendees. I can hear for myself how the candidates responded.

That being said, I have heard nothing that changes my judgement. I support Benjamin Cox for Commissioner and Lori Wagoner for Mayor.

It's all about the future of the town.

2013 Oriental NC Candidate Forum

I received a pretty complete report from Wednesday night's Candidate Forum.

No surprises.

Nothing happened to change my judgments in my last post. I will vote for Lori Wagoner for mayor and Benjamin Cox for Commissioner.

Voting shouldn't be about charisma or other personality attributes - what matters is policy. Who has the best chance of leading Oriental into a better future?

Not the incumbents.

Town Of Oriental Elections

Out of town this week, so no posts so far. But tonight is a big event in Oriental - the candidate's forum. And voting starts tomorrow.

With ten candidates for five seats on the Town Board, voters will face some difficult choices. My advice: don't reelect any incumbents. I thought about posting my reasons, but decided against it. My reasons have to do with policy, not personalities, though in some cases it is hard to separate the two.

I don't know anyone who follows town affairs who believes the present Board has done well.

I will vote for Benjamin Cox. He has the knowledge and skills to contribute valuable insights to the Board.

Something to bear in mind is, voters don't have to vote for all five commissioner seats. There are good reasons to vote for the one or two that you support and no others. There is also the option of casting write-in votes. I could be tempted, for example, to write in Lilli Stern's name. I think she is going to contribute a great deal to the Town, whether in office or not.

I intend to vote for Lori Wagoner for mayor.

Time for a new broom.

Effect Of ACA On Different States: Those Expanding Medicaid Do Much Better

Here is an excellent report examining how different states do under the Affordable Care Act. The report has a good summary graph of the difference between states expanding Medicaid and those not expanding Medicaid. If state governments are concerned for the welfare of their citizens, expanding Medicaid is a no-brainer.

More On The History Of Republican Election Strategy

Yesterday I provided a link to an article by Michael Lind shedding light on Republican strategy. A strategy, by the way, that has been pretty successful as well as destructive.

Today I offer a link to an article in Salon.com by Salon's editor, Joan Walsh: http://www.salon.com/2013/10/01/the_real_story_of_the_shutdown_50_years_of_gop_race_baiting/

This new article complements the piece by Michael Lind.

I have been following the developments described by both authors for about seventy years. They pretty much hit the nail on the head.

Bruce Bartlett Predicts: Shutdown Will Defeat Republicans In 2014

Writing for the Fiscal Times,  Republican pundit Bruce Bartlett sees a possible Republican defeat in 2014 because of the government shutdown. His analysis is here.

Speaking Of Ponderous Matter

Yesterday's New York Times reported the award of the Nobel Prize in physics for the Higgs Boson, that gives mass to particles in space, or something like that. When experimenters at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland detected the Higgs Boson, it completed the verification of the Standard Model, which is a very big thing in physics.

The article explained the function of the Higgs: "According to this model, the universe brims with energy that acts like a cosmic molasses, imbuing the particles that move through it with mass, the way a bill moving through Congress attracts riders and amendments, becoming more and more ponderous and controversial."

What most needs explaining now is the origin of the New York Times' tortured analogy. My theory is that the Times had no science writer to do the article, but because of the shutdown of the US government, there was a political reporter available - one who usually covers Congress and to whom such an analogy makes sense. Otherwise, there is no rational explanation.

NC Health Insurance And Medicaid

Information is accumulating that the McRory Administration war on Medicaid and the General Assembly's refusal to expand Medicaid is fraudulent from beginning to end. And North Carolinians are suffering as a result.

Here is what NC Health News has uncovered. The bottom line is that NC Medicaid has one of the nation's lowest administrative costs instead of being 30% higher than similar states. But the incoming administration suppressed that information. They wanted an excuse to reject Medicaid expansion, which is a central element in keeping overall health care costs down.

Then the General Assembly prohibited the Insurance Commissioner from providing any assistance to Insurance companies interested in taking part in an insurance exchange. The News and Observer explains.

For ideological and partisan reasons, the Republicans in charge of North Carolina have intentionally sabotaged the Affordable Health Care Act and increased profits for Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

Expanding Medicaid would reduce costs and increase competition.

Lincoln On Political Extortion

“A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, ‘Stand and deliver, or I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!’ ”

Abraham Lincoln, 1860

Tea Party Radicalism: Just A Bit More Extreme?

Much current commentary tends to describe the Tea Party phenomenon as just a bit more extreme than mainstream Republicanism, but within the American tradition. Francis Fukuyama recently tied the Tea Party efforts to the parts of the US Constitution that make it hard for anything to get done.

Michael Lind thinks it is more than that. It may have roots going back to Jefferson and Jackson (and to the Anti-Federalists, but Lind doesn't bring that up), but it represents a fundamentally anti-democratic undertaking. Think Downton Abbey.

Here is Lind's article. It is the best analysis I have read lately, putting it in the context of the American Civil War, the failure of reconstruction, and the reaction to the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act.

There are a lot of different ways to look at current American politics. The different angles overlap, and they all seem to involve race to some degree.

I strongly recommend reading Lind's article.

On Rigging Elections In The West

How often would you vote if you had to drive 157 miles round trip to exercise the franchise? Not to mention being faced with racist harassment at the county seat?

Tomorrow at the ninth circuit court of appeals in Montana, the great-grandson of a Cheyenne who fought against and defeated George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn appears against the wife of one of Custer's descendants in a case over Native American voting rights.

The Guardian provides an account of what is at stake here.

It appears pretty clear that the dominant white residents of Montana (and South Dakota) have rigged the electoral system to make it virtually impossible for Native Americans to vote.

The plaintiff is a Northern Cheyenne and Vietnam veteran, wounded in defense of his country.

Personal note: my grandsons are Native Americans, and my wife and I have attended many Pow-Wows across the land. The opening ceremonies always accord special honor to both veterans and those currently serving in the US armed forces. In fact, I know no more patriotic Americans than those of Native ancestry.

Another personal note: in 1876, my great grandfather served in the U.S. 4th Cavalry Regiment in Texas. After Little Big Horn, the regiment was sent north to "round up" a band of Cheyenne and return them to their reservation. He subsequently rode with Billy the Kid in the Lincoln County Wars and is said to have served in the Indian Scout Service. I don't know the truth of that.

But I do know that across the West, Native Americans have been systematically impeded in exercising their right to vote.

The doctrine of White Supremacy is not confined to the states of the former Confederacy.

The Tipping Syndrome

One of the pleasures from browsing through blog sites on the web is the occasional discovery of a new and unexpected insight. The insight that "Republicans are the dissatisfied and angry diners at the table of life." is something that never occurred to me. I keep puzzling over the irrationality of their economic ideas, their rejection of science and facts, and their evident disdain for people who actually work for a living, but I never thought about their general dissatisfaction with the world as it is.

The blog post by Aimai goes on: "We've seen a lot of weird reactions on the right wing to the Government Shut down. These range from "it doesn't matter" to "its terrible" but one thing that really strikes me is the rage and antipathy that has been displayed towards Federal Workers themselves.  It doesn't strike me as unusual, but it does strike me as significant.  Yesterday's on air rant by Stuart Varney makes it pretty explicit: Federal Workers and, indeed, the entire Government are failing Stuart Varney. They cost too much and they do too little.  In fact: they are so awful they don't even deserve to be paid for the work they have already done. Contracts, agreements, and labor be damned. If Stuart Varney isn't happy then they deserve to be fired."

And it all relates to tipping. You have to read the post to uncover the connection, but it calls to mind North Carolina Governor Pat McRory's announcement that he wants the state bureaucracy to adopt a "customer service" mentality. I never knew what he meant. Now I understand. He wants the bureaucracy to act like "wait staff" in a restaurant angling for a tip.

If they can't take bribes, they can at least take orders, and "the customer is always right" - if, that is, he has enough wealth, power or other high status.

Seventy Years Ago On The Eastern Front: The Holocaust Is Discovered

Soviet forces advancing against the German Army enter the region of Khazary, a Jewish region, and find all the inhabitants dead.

The eyewitness account here paints a vivid picture of just what that means.

The horror.

Water For Wal Mart

At last week's Town Board meeting, Oriental Town Manager Wyatt Cutler claimed that selling Town water to customers outside the Town (i.e. Wal-Mart) is good, because we make money for the Town. Reference was also made to the fact that the Town agreed to provide water to the Dollar General store, which is also out of Town. Commissioner Venturi pushed the same line.

It is true that the Town has been providing water to Dollar General since they opened.

It is not true that the Town made money from providing water.

It's like the old joke: "we lose money on every sale, but make up for it in volume."

In fact, during the decade from 2001 to 2011, the General Fund (Oriental taxpayers) was subsidizing the Water Fund (water users, including Dollar General) an average of from $35,000 to $50,000 a year.

It could happen again if the Town isn't careful to keep rates high enough to cover ALL of the expenses of operating the water plant, including depreciation.

Town Of Oriental Municipal Elections Begin In Thirteen Days

Early one-stop voting for Oriental municipal offices begins at the County Board of Elections in Bayboro in thirteen days.

German Elections

Interesting article in Atlantic about German elections. It describes a very different form of democracy. I think it has great advantages over ours. Germany's system is one form of proportional representation, where the voters vote for the party whose candidates they wish to see in office. It isn't about individual candidates. Parties select their own candidate list. The number of candidates from each party who win office in parliament depends on how many votes each party receives. Those candidates higher on their party's list have a higher probability of gaining office.

I think there are many advantages to the proportional representation system. One advantage is that it almost inevitably creates more than two parties and to form a government requires forming a coalition. To some extent, parties have to make nice with each other.

Here is a link to the article.

There are differences from country to country in the details, but proportional representation systems have much in common. The political dynamics are very different from "first past the post" or "winner take all" systems like ours.

Economist Brad DeLong on "Three Kansases"

I'm not sure why economist Brad DeLong is writing from Kansas City, but he has posted some comments on the economics and politics of government in Kansas. I would like to say, "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore - we're in North Carolina," but I'm not so sure.

Here is what he says:

"As best as I can see it, the majority political coalitions in these three different Kansas are as follows:

• In the Petropolis [Wichita area] right now, the majority coalition votes for lower taxes because the petrocrats have convinced the voters (correctly) that state taxes transfer money out of Greater Wichita to the Prairie and to the Blue Triangle [Kansas City area], and (incorrectly) that the citizens of Greater Wichita as a group benefit from more money in the hands of the petrocrats.
• On the Prairie right now, the majority coalition votes for lower taxes because the voters believe (incorrectly) that their state tax money goes to keep the African-American poor of Kansas City in idleness, and (correctly) that their tax money goes to support state colleges, universities, and high schools that teach evolution and "liberalism".
• In the Blue Kansas City Social-Democratic Triangle right now, the majority coalition votes for lower taxes because the voters believe (correctly) that their state tax money goes to support the Prairie, and (correctly) that they could get better value if they kept their state tax money at home, redirected it to lower levels of government to support their schools, roads, and parks, and so had social democracy in seven counties.
• Underpinning everything in all three areas, the majority coalition suffers from Fear of a Black President: Lots of people in Kansas's three regional majority coalitions appear to be thinking: "For 500 years we kept the Black Man down. Now somehow one of them is in charge. What would we do if the Black Man had kept us down for 500 years, and now one of us was in charge? That's right--we would try to disadvantage them, and so he is trying to disadvantage us, and we must oppose everything he wants to do, for if we cannot figure out how it is intended to disadvantage us that only shows that he is clever, and we must oppose everything he plans even more strongly."

I really wish I were joking. But that really appears to be how it is right now--really appears to be What Is the Matter with Kansas"

J. Bradford DeLong on October 01, 2013 at 10:34 AM | Permalink

Throw The Bums Out

The clear conclusion that any citizen of the Town of Oriental can draw from last night's Town Board meeting is that none of the incumbent candidates should be returned to office.

Not a single one has shown anything other than contempt or disdain for concerns of the citizens. None has shown any interest in seeking advice from citizens, many of whom have more knowledge and experience than those in office.

It was not always so. Those who held office from 2005 to 2009 were far more open to inputs from citizens than those currently holding office.

What can we do? A good start would be to replace the whole crew - lock, stock and barrel. In the vernacular - throw the bums out. All of them.

Elections start two weeks from tomorrow. Oriental voters begin casting early votes during one-stop on October 17 at the County Board of Elections in Bayboro.