Sunday, August 28, 2016
The Rule of Nobody
Guess what? I read another book that
describes how screwed the US Federal Government is! I know that is not a huge shock to those that have been reading
my blog for a few years. When I saw Philip K. Howard on CNBC a number of weeks ago he mentioned his most recent book,
The Rule of Nobody - Saving America from Dead Laws and Broken Regulations. I decided I should give it a try.
The Rule of
Nobody was published in 2014, so it is fairly recent in terms of understanding how screwed up our government has become.
Since I finishing reading Howard's earlier book, The Death of Common Sense, about a week before starting
The Rule of Nobody some of the material in the first half of the book seemed a bit repetitive. Anyone that
has ever attempted to get anything done on their own that involves the Feds or worked with any organization that is impacted
by federal regulations understands that the United States is far over regulated and that much of our body of regulations is
counterproductive. A significant percentage of labor within our economy is wasted in complying with regulations that
contribute nothing to our national economy. It is no wonder why the US GDP is growing at about a one percent annual
rate after years of Federal Government deficit spending and very low interest rates controlled by the Federal Reserve.
The final third or so
of The Rule of Nobody is dedicated to explaining how screwed up our process of governing our country is in Washington,
DC. Howard explains how a huge number of vested interests have gained control of our government and used the regulatory
and legal system to maintain power over the rest of us. He gives some great examples that support his thesis that we
have a large quantity of law and regulations that were written during a different time and no longer are relevant
in today's world. Yet all of this bad old law has supporters that use the legal system to keep anyone from changing
it. Instead of Congress periodically reviewing all of our laws and updating them as needed, they ignore the old laws
and pile on new ones.
There
is no doubt that the US is buried under an avalanche of laws and regulations and our nation is suffering as a result.
Howard has proposed five new amendments to the Constitution that will help improve how our nation operates. I don't
agree with all of the language. However, I agree the US would be better off with Howard's amendments as part of
our Constitution than not.
Howard acknowledges that the US effectively needs an uprising of its citizens in order to get the major changes he
advocates incorporated into our government processes. I don't believe the changes he advocates can be implemented unless
a charismatic leader can be elected President and lead the country through radical changes to its methods of governing.
It will take an incredible amount of power to overcome the vested interests that control our nation.
For better or worse, Donald Trump's current Presidential campaign is the closest
the US has come in many years to having this type of person obtaining power. I am not suggesting that Howard endorses
Trump or that Trump endorses Howard's philosophy or recommendations. But Trump is a unique potential change agent
that is not part of the core constituency of either party, even though he is running as a Republican. If Trump is elected
we may have a chance to make some of the changes Howard advocates for in The Rule of Nobody. I hate to
think about what will happen to our nation if we continue on our current path.
TPM
Sunday, August 21, 2016
Rights and Regulations - Killing Our Nation
I have been writing thepurplemuse.com for almost ten years.
During this time the most frequently viewed article that I have written is Rights vs Privileges. I wrote this
article in 2006. It was one of the first contributions I made to the web site. I doesn't seem to make any difference
what other topics I may address. In the end people gravitate to Rights vs Privileges.
A couple of weeks ago I was watching CNBC and watched short segment with Phillip
K. Howard. I had never heard of Mr. Howard but he sounded interesting so I decided to purchase his most recent book.
While I was ordering his most recent book on Amazon I decided to buy a couple of other books so I would qualify for free
standard shipping and also diversify my reading backlog for the next couple of months. One of the other books I purchased
was The Death of Common Sense - How Law Is Suffocating America, a book originally published in 1994 by Phillip
K. Howard. Mr. Howard added an Afterword in 2011 for the paperback edition of the book I purchased. Apparently,
this book was a New York Times during its original publication. I had never heard of it, that I remember, until I saw
it listed on Amazon.
The fundamental
message of the book is that the bottomless pit of regulations and rights established under federal, state and local law
is killing the United States of America. We have replaced common sense in government with detailed rules and procedures
that often times do more harm than good. Mr. Howard gives many examples of how stupidly we have applied new laws
or let old laws that shouldn't apply anymore control current actions.
As a society we have made following the rules more important than obtaining the best possible overall outcome
for our citizens. In our zeal to protect certain interests we have damaged the interests of others. We have attempted
to replace responsible decision making with hard rules. We are worse off in many cases as a result. We can
trace the path of this stupidity back to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the environmental laws that followed the publication
of Rachel Carson's book, Silent Spring in 1962. The problems addressed in the Civil Rights Acts and the early environmental
laws and regulations were real. Our Congress needed to act. Our nation needed legislation and enforcement.
Our problem is that during the succeeding decades we have added layer upon layer of additional "rights" and regulations.
More and more special interests have gained power over the rest of us by acquiring "rights" through legislation.
Washington DC has evolved into a quagmire of political special interests acquiring and protecting power.
As I discussed in my article, what many people including Mr. Howard, call "rights"
are not "rights", they are privileges. Privileges can be granted and can be revoked. In his 2011 Afterword
Mr. Howard explains his approach for a new government operating system based on individual responsibility. Mr. Howard's
final paragraph says it all. "Replacing detailed mandates and entitlements with responsibility to make judgements
for the common good will require a battle. Most special interests and sitting officials will hate it. That's why it
must be led by citizens outside of government."
I could relate some of my own experiences in dealing with the stupidity of government "rights" and regulations
but I will skip those for now. I also laughed when I read some of the examples in the book that weren't much different
from some of my own experiences.
The
sad aspect of this book is that the situation Mr. Howard describes and warns his readers about has only gotten much worse
in the years following the publication of his book. All the problems he describes are much worse now than when he originally
wrote about them. Our political class has severely damaged our country. I am not sure how much more of this kind
of damage we can take. After years of massive federal government deficits and Federal Reserve money printing and
low interest rates our GDP is growing at barely one percent per year. I believe that the accumulated damage of all the
rights and regulations legislation over the decades is helping to kill our national economy. We have
gone well over the line between helpful and harmful rules and regulations. We must stop this process first and then
hopefully clean it up to some degree.
When
Mr. Howard wrote this book and even when he wrote the Afterword in 2011 the 2016 Presidential election was
a long way out into the future. Look at the choices we have. We can vote for Hillary Clinton. She is a guarantee
that the problems described by Mr. Howard will only get worse. We can vote for Donald Trump. His early supporters
are people that want to break up the Washington political elite and stop and reverse the process described by Mr. Howard.
We really don't know how far Trump will go to stopping this disaster, if he is elected, but at least there is a chance for
a positive outcome. I suggest you read the this book and think about who you want to vote for in the November election.
As I watch what is happening in the US today I just shake my head. How can
people be so stupid? How can they not understand the basic concepts outlined in The Death of Common Sense?
In November we will select a new President. Our general path for the next four years will be defined. I hope the
next four years will not be full of new "rights" and regulations that will put more daggers into the heart
of our country. How much more can we take before it kills us?
TPM
Thursday, August 11, 2016
Truth from Fiction
Some time ago I was watching a video by
Graham Hancock as he discussed the reasons why he wrote a couple of novels when his global readership well supported his
best selling nonfiction work. He explained that in a novel he could write the story he wanted to write
without the rigor required to support a nonfiction work. He wanted the flexibility to tell the story his way.
In recent weeks I have
been reading best selling author Daniel Silva's series of novels featuring Gabriel Allon, and Israeli art restorer, spy
and assassin. This is another series of books that my wife has been reading for years but I ignored since I was reading nonfiction
almost exclusively. Silva's books have been best sellers for a reason. They are really good. I was fortunate
that my wife had saved the first novel in the series and I decided to try it. I have now read the first six novels in
the order of their publication which began in 2000. The first six are:
The Kill Artist
The English Assassin
The Confessor
A Death in Vienna
Prince of Fire
The Messenger
The entire series now includes sixteen novels. I plan to read
the other ten within the next year or so.
So what does my Graham Hancock comment got to do with a best selling fiction author's work? The first
six novels include substantial commentary about the Holocaust, much of it extremely graphic. The escape of Nazi
war criminals after WWII and the US government's failure to pursue known war criminals are woven into
the plots. The circumstances surrounding the creation of the state of Israel are included. The takeover
of Palestinian villages and lands by the Israelis during the creation of Israel is addressed. The hatred of
Israel by the Palestinians that were exiled and their supporters is included. The evolution of Arab terrorist efforts
to strike at Israel and its western supporters is woven into the plot lines. Since I am reading
the novels in sequence and one right after the other, the books almost become chapters in a history book in some
sense. While the storyline is fiction, much of the commentary about the continual conflict faced by Jews, beginning
in Europe prior to World War II, moving to Palestine/Israel after World War II, and now expanding globally via terrorism,
is like reading a modern history book complemented by a news feed.
I have read that Daniel Silva converted to Judaism as an adult.
Therefore, one would expect that he would support Israel's views of the Middle East conflict in the context
of his books. I believe Silva does a good job of discussing the conflicts from all sides. But in
the end the Jewish people will defend their nation and pursue those that they perceive to be their enemies. Gabriel
Allon is an assassin that kills the enemies of Israel. I certainly don't expect to see any resolution
to the inherent causes of the Middle East conflict in my life time.
Much of the action in the story-lines takes place in London, Paris, Rome,
Washington DC and Israel. I have had the good fortune of visiting the European cities a number of times for business
or pleasure. I have lived in the Washington DC metro area for decades so it is always interesting to see if authors
describe our region accurately in novels.
I have visited Israel twice on cruise ships in the past five years for a total of five days of touring.
While much of the action in the books takes place in Tel Aviv, a city I did not visit, action also takes place in Jerusalem,
the Sea of Galilee region (Lake Tiberias) and other locations. One of the major sites featured in the books
is a home on the western hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee toward the east. In the fall of 2011 I stood on the hills
southwest of the Sea of Galilee and looked over the water at the Golan Heights and the Mountains of Jordan.
I looked at Syria between the gap in the mountains a few miles to the east. The current borders of Lebanon are a few
miles to the north of where I was standing. It was a gorgeous peaceful day when I looked over the Sea of Galilee region.
You would never know this area was one of the most hotly contested, fought over areas of the world in recent decades.
Every time I read a passage in the books that takes place at the Sea of Galilee my mind goes back to my day in the region.
If you have any interest
in novels of this type check out the Gabriel Allon books by Daniel Silva. They have been best sellers for a reason.
It is amazing how much truth can be found in fiction. It is time for me to begin reading the seventh book in the series,
The Secret Servant.
TPM
Tuesday, August 2, 2016
Trump Rally in Ashburn, Virginia
It is pretty rare that I make spur of the moment
command decisions to change my plan for the day. Today was one of those days. I was watching cable news this morning
and saw that Donald Trump was scheduled to speak at Briar Woods High School in Ashburn, Virginia. This happens to be
a high school that I know very well for various reasons. I knew that I wouldn't be allowed to see Trump's
speech in the high school because I didn't have a ticket. I also knew that I wouldn't be able to get to the school
until well after the scheduled start time of the speech, so I wouldn't be able to see Trump arrive. I decided to go
anyway to see what was going on.
I was able to park across the street but fairly close to the school. As I walked toward the front entrance
drive, blocked by the local police to auto traffic, I could see the protesters waving their signs to the cars driving by on
the street. I decided to go over and see what the protesters had to say. I spent the next hour or so engaging
in a lively discussion with a couple of dozen protesters and a few Trump supporters wearing their Make America Great Again
hats and tee shirts. The protesters were a very diverse group made up mostly of college age young people with a few
older people that are in my age group.
In this particular group there were many young American Muslims that appear to be convinced that Trump wants to remove
them from the country or do something negative to them or their people. They don't appear to want to understand
the nuance of Trump's position on Muslim immigration and rooting out Islamic terrorists. One young lady didn't
care about any issue other than climate change. She told me she wants to vote for the Green Party candidate since
she can't vote for Bernie Sanders. A well spoken African American lady and young man were concerned that if Trump was
elected there would be a race war in the United States. All of the anti-Trump protesters were against his immigration
policy and building a wall on the Southern border. They discounted his leadership ability as demonstrated by his
many business successes. In their eyes all that counts are some of the problems he experienced in his business
career.
A number
of times I tried to get these young people to focus on the national debt, our annual budget deficit, our trade deficit and
social security funding issues among other items. These protesters didn't appear to care about any of these items.
I asked them to take the time to understand the numbers, but none of them seemed interested in learning anything about the
US economic and financial picture. I asked them to understand the relationship between illegal immigration and
competition for jobs and consumption of public resources. These points didn't register with the people I talked to today.
They appear to be locked-on to sound bites from liberal progressive media. At the same time Trump has created many
of his own issues by making statements or tweets without context.
As people were leaving the school, indicating the speech was over, I walked down
the the front entrance to the high school. Vendors were selling Trump's campaign stuff. There were local media
all about. There were two satellite trucks in the parking lot. I watched a group of Trump supporters and a group
of Dump Trump supporters each form a line and look at each other without a lot of yelling. Eventually a large number
of police went inside the school and then come out as the Trump entourage vehicles drove out from the rear entrance of the
school and left the area. It was time for me to head home, which I did.
There was a fair amount of media around the protesters and I may be on the evening
news on one of our local stations in a crowd shot. But nobody from the media talked to me about anything.
One conclusion I can draw from this limited experience. The protesters have
very little to zero financial stake in the election. They have nothing to lose. Their decisions are based on emotional
response more than any analysis. They were no big advocates for Hillary Clinton in the crowd. They simply didn't
want anything to do with Donald Trump. They can't accept many of things he has said and look at some of the actions
he has taken in his business career as hypocritical. They have no context for most of their views They haven't
lived long enough to have any depth of knowledge. However, all the protesters were well mannered. They advocated
strongly for their views without acting inappropriately in any way.
It was a very interesting couple of hours in the hot sun. I am glad I changed
my plan for today.
TPM
