Monthly Archives: May 2016

President Donald

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The mariner has a working career that spans both corporate and government management. There is a distinct difference. Most notable is that corporate culture is measured solely by the ratio between cost and income, namely, profit; the greater the profit, the more successful the corporation. The antithesis is lack of control over process.

As to government, its culture is measured by how safe, economically sound and fair, and – an aspect easily overlooked – how well the government supports the general culture in a way that allows its citizens open expression and a sense of achievement. The citizen is the product. The antithesis is ill fitting ideologies like oppressive capitalism, plutocracies, suppressive policies, democratic imbalance and disregard for the Constitution (racism et al).

Also, a distinct difference between corporate and government management is the attitude of managers. Corporate managers are hired and rewarded for things like control, efficiency, accuracy, and predictability. Government managers are rewarded for sustaining rational public policy while at the same time allowing flexibility and transition as various politicians hold sway over general public policy.

Whereas a corporation has a Chairman of the Board, Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer, and independent divisions for operations, material management and product development, governments have publicly elected Presidents, Governors, cabinet members overseeing public policy in associated departments, publicly elected legislators, and courts. Should Donald be elected, this difference will be obvious.

Donald has run his campaign for nomination as a business entrepreneur would: He has ignored policy protocol, particularly those relating to race, international relations, military circumstances, and even republican/democratic ideologies. The important issue is votes in a republican primary. Donald intuited that sufficient dissatisfied republican voters have been cut out of their party by those who continued to garner wealth – making the Republican Party a good ol’ boys club for rich folks. With the aid of Citizens United, plutocracy has taken over. This separation between party establishment and citizen is the only important issue to Donald during the primaries. Notice (the mariner is sure you have) that Donald did not respect the premise that a candidate should not insult a voter but rather appeal to arguable precepts that may appeal to that voter. Donald need only count on his fingers to estimate that the number of disenfranchised republicans was large enough to carry a plurality in republican voting and of an ilk to vote for outside restructuring of a do nothing Congress. Foregoing an accounting of the primaries, it may be of interest to see how Donald will manage the republican leadership team in an effort to parlay the republican plurality into a general election majority and an Electoral College victory.

Donald will not stand at the center of public policy, leading the charge of change like Mel Gibson in Braveheart. Donald will be at the center of power. Donald will not bother himself with lesser tasks like Constitutional law or civil rights or union issues or religious conflicts or pipelines versus green house policy or discretionary governance. Donald will control the reconciliations of these issues once a solution has been proposed. Donald will accept reconciliations if he approves of them – else negotiations and solutions simply will not be enacted.  Despite Donald’s readiness to distribute managerial authority for all items that cross his desk, the final resolution must fit his vision. His knowledge base will create a much different economy, a new international isolationist relationship, and a harsher interpretation of humanism. Donald will behave as though people are more trouble than they are worth. The problem with government is it lets the citizens get in the way.  There’s room only for one vote around here: Donald’s.

REFERENCE SECTION

Apologies about the lapse in posts. Life has many distracting turns. At this point of the Presidential campaigns, it may be helpful to refocus your thoughts to higher levels of vision than offered by the news media. Either view on Netflix, rent the movie, watch on Youtube, however the reader can accomplish it, watch the following in its entirety: Surviving Progress  https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Surviving+Progress+Full+Movie&Form=VQFRVP 

Ancient Mariner

Liftoff to the General Election

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Many readers may have heard the news media touting two pieces of news: first, Hillary’s staff implied Bernie was being considered as a possible Vice President; Bernie said he would be open to the Vice Presidency on Hillary’s ticket; second, Bill Kristol can’t find anyone to be an establishment figurehead to run on a third ballot – meaning Donald is in charge until the Republican Convention and further to election day in November.

These two pieces of news eliminate every calculable solution other than the weirdest, outlandish guess possible – like one of the candidates dies or a devastating meteor strikes the Earth over Washington DC.

Bernie said in effect that he knows he has lost and would accept an offer to be VP on the Hillary ticket. This does two things: it allows Bernie’s army to “lay down their arms.” Further, it puts Hillary in a position of “I won! Bernie said so!” but now Hillary must find a way to bring Bernie on board that seems collaborative. In any case, there will be no contested Democratic Convention in Philadelphia. The democrats should easily unify behind a Hillary nomination as the campaign rolls into Election Day – including as many independents, progressives, college-educated and students who will actually vote. Nevertheless, Bernie will push for his legislative goals to the very end of the convention.

William Kristol should do his homework. Third party campaigns never work and elect the opposite party’s candidate who otherwise may not have won (Jimmy Carter for example). Without a third party option, the role of republican establishment is limited to trying to save down-ballot elections they can in Congress knowing that no self-respecting candidate will join the coattails of Donald in a close local competition. If it becomes true that Donald walks into the Republican Convention with a delegate lock on the nomination, it will be a non-event although entertaining to watch media cover behind-the-scenes scrambling.

Donald apparently likes lieutenants with a harsh style. His campaign manager is Corey Lewandowski (most famous for assault charges at a rally).  Former New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Fergus Cullen said he thinks Lewandowski is drawn to a “burn the boats, blow up the bridges campaign.” To deal with the early lapse in delegate management, Donald hired Ken McKay (ex-Chris Christie) to fix things. Bobby Jindel said, “This is not a guy who wastes his time going on cable TV and running his mouth. Trump hiring Ken McKay is a bad thing for the Ted Cruz campaign; I can assure you of that.” Just recently, Donald hired Steve Mnunchin to lead the general election fund raising campaign for the Republican Party and other republican candidates running for office.

Steve Mnunchin is the ringleader of a small group of billionaires who bought IndyBank, a relatively large bank, as it was preparing to file bankruptcy. One of the earlier bank bankruptcies in the recession, IndyMac had a loose mortgage lending policy that quickly filled with bad mortgages. Mnunchin changed the bank name to OneWest and (many say fraudulently) foreclosed on all the mortgages.

If Hillary and Bernie are campaigning together, they will make hamburger of Mnunchin by selling him as an example of the 2008 recession abuse of family mortgages foreclosed on by mortgage banks – throwing families out on the street homeless. The shady forcing of foreclosures turns mortgages into huge profits. In this case, Mnunchin made $1.6B in less than a year with the FDIC paying for all the losses!

A postscript: Mariner finds he tires of nothing but Donald on broadcast and cable; mariner seeks other national and world news, quite important but not covered, by scrounging the Internet. Does the reader think all the dominance by Donald in the long run will bore the citizen in the coming months? The mariner is more interested in the post-election economic and budgetary priorities than in the romper room antics of the Donald general election campaign.

Ancient Mariner

So Here We Are

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The odd reality of it all casts a strange light across the land. We fear a tornado of some kind during the general election. Donald has captured the spirit of the Republican white disenfranchised. Hillary already has demonstrated she has the nonwhite disenfranchised. Both angry, populist classes are warming to the confrontation as well as their counterparts, the super wealthy and the old school establishment.

Then there’s Bernie’s army: a mixed bag of volunteers, mostly white, many independents, progressive democrats, and a decent slice of the young professionals, the educated, and the trapped college students. How will Bernie’s army vote in the general election? Will the young liberals move toward Hillary? Will the disenfranchised democrat working class move to Donald?

If the situation weren’t so important and if the wellbeing of so many humans weren’t at stake, the mariner would feel like he’s settling down to watch an enjoyable evening of Summer Olympics. Donald reminds mariner of George Patton’s attitude toward armed conflict: It’s all about winning. Donald was interviewed recently about the bloody trail of insults and accusations: “You do what it takes to win,” he said. Donald apologized to all his former combatants saying they were fine fellows and professionals who will (to some extent) reunite to “win” the general election.

We may be in for some surprises from Donald – character assassination aside. Have no doubt he is a pragmatist to the bone and will be as flexible as an octopus, retuning his persona and policy position at will. If he wins the election, Katy bar the door!

Hillary may have the fight of her life in the general election. As disrespectful of the “establishment” as Donald is, Hillary, by the manner in which she has pushed away Bernie and his army, has embraced status quo governance. What the three populist movements (disenfranchised republicans, democrats and Bernie’s army) have in common is a firm distaste for establishment government. In general, the democrats have not demonstrated party enthusiasm in this election except for Bernie’s army which may be prone to not voting or if angry enough, switching to Donald’s populists.

Hillary demonstrated her fortitude by enduring an eleven hour cross examination by the House committee on Benghazi. It was quite a demonstration of her concentration. There was nothing to fear because the Benghazi issue had no untoward evidence and had dragged on too long. It was like flying trapeze with a net. Donald will force Hillary to take the offense outside the tactic of better documented policy.

The Presidential Election will continue to be a circus. Donald will see to that. As almost always is the case in US elections, neither candidate is perfect.

The mariner has a feeling the undercard may be the more important part of the 2016 election. If there is no shift of majorities in the House or Senate, or if there is no shift of majorities in a State’s legislature or Governorship, not much will change. Two very important historical moments are at play: Who will appoint at least two Justices to the Supreme Court? The next Presidential election in 2020 will be the next chance to change state districting to correct gerrymandering. Only one path will lead to eliminating party access to redistricting: A Supreme Court amenable to the idea.

So here we are. Every elected position in the nation affects how we will govern and how we will prepare ourselves for a truly different future. It will take appropriate victories in all three branches of the Federal Government and a change in conservative/liberal philosophies in all branches of state government.

By all means, we need rational, responsible voters.

 VOTE

 Ancient Mariner