It has been a while since I've gone on one of my patented rants about current events. I suspect some of you will agree with some of my comments below, while I suspect some of you will vehemently disagree with others. You are entitled to your opinion just like I am and that's all this is: a Festivus-style airing of grievances. Let's go...
Climate Change, Forced Electrification and Natural Gas- If the polar vortex and record winter cold last week taught us nothing else, it's that we need reliable energy and safeguards in place to ensure people are able to heat their homes in bitter winter cold and cool their homes during scorching summer heat waves. If Texas taught us nothing else (more on that in a bit), it's that maybe a little regulatory oversight isn't be a bad thing. Solely trusting in and relying upon energy companies to "do the right thing" to winterize their equipment and ensure that the power grid is capable of handling weather extremes is clearly not the answer. From windmills to gas pipelines to electrical substations, shortcuts were taken and corners were cut and the results were nearly catastrophic.
We also should hopefully now all understand the importance of diversification in our respective national energy portfolios. Much like financial advisors encourage investors to diversify their portfolios and not put all of their proverbial eggs in one basket, we as a nation need to apply that same lesson to our energy needs. Forced electrification is a bad idea. Solely relying on so-called "renewable energy" like wind and solar is likewise a bad idea. Wind and solar should certainly be a part of the solution but we also need things like natural gas or electricity from coal to help balance things out. That way, if the winds aren't blowing and the sun isn't out, we still have energy resources we can use to heat homes and businesses. Pipelines may be repugnant to some but they also help ensure energy reliability and energy independence, not to mention offer some really good paying jobs. We can't just shut them down and then cross our fingers and hope for nationwide sunny, windy, mild weather.
Don't get me wrong - climate change is real and we need to take steps to address it. But much like investing all of your 401k in Enron stock was a bad idea in the early 2000s, relying solely on renewable energy is a bad idea in 2021. If we focus on balancing things out between renewable sources like solar and wind and more reliable things like natural gas, we can help fight climate change while also avoiding horrifying scenes like we saw in Texas last week.
Texas politicians - Speaking of Texas, it was NOT a very good week for most politicians in Texas, in particular the governor (who blamed frozen windmills for the power crisis while ignoring the fact that said windmills only account for a small percentage of the energy Texans use) and a certain Senator who flipped his constituents the bird and decided to take a vacation while the people he is supposed to represent are, in some cases, literally freezing to death. More on that jackass in a minute. Some of the very politicians who were making fun of California for rolling blackouts last year looked like idiots when similar rolling blackouts showed up in the Lone Star State. From Greg Abbott to Ted Cruz to Rick Perry to some small town yahoo mayor named Tim Boyd, Texas politicians had a very, very bad week last week. However, there was one notable exception. Beto O'Rourke, who was defeated in his campaign for Senate in 2018, rose to the challenge and made phone calls and arrangements to get people into warming centers, amongst other things. I wonder if Texans will remember the stark difference between how Cruz handled the crisis vs. how O'Rourke handled it when they go to the polls in 2024.
Ted Cruz - A college acquaintance recently referred to Cruz as a "despicable loser" when responding to one of Cruz's gratuitous Facebook posts following the Cancun debacle and I really can't think of a better phrase to describe him. Keep in mind, this is a guy who responded to insults about his wife and father made by Donald Trump in 2016 by endorsing Trump and becoming his lapdog for the next 4 years. He even tried to overthrow the 2020 presidential election to keep the guy who insulted his family in power. Talk about despicable and spineless! Then, when the rest of Texas is hunkering down in cold houses without power and water, Cruz responds to the crisis by taking a family trip to Cancun where they will stay at the friggin' Ritz Carlton. Then, when he gets caught playing hooky, he lies about how long he was going to be there and then blames his daughters. Now that's what you call a stand-up guy!
To me, however, the most galling thing about Cruz is that he casts himself as somebody who is fighting for the average American. Never mind that the guy was born in Canada, went to a private high school, Princeton for his undergrad and Harvard for law school. Never mind that he apparently has the resources to not just book a vacation on a whim but to do so in Mexico at a luxury hotel. He bashes career politicians while neglecting to point out that he's spent his entire adult life in politics. He's as divorced from reality as any politician in the country. He lambasts Democrats for being too partisan while being the epitome of a partisan hack himself. If the voters of Texas look at Ted Cruz and say "Yeah, give me more of that!," I don't know what can be done to help them.
Josh Hawley - No discussion of out of touch politicians can be had without including Missouri Senator Josh Hawley, whom I not so fondly refer to as Senator Phony Carpetbagger. Like Cruz, he portrays himself as being a champion for the average American, usually by playing up the fact that he grew up in a small town in Missouri. Of course, that little narrative ignores that fact that he went to high school at an elite private prep school in Kansas City and that he did his undergrad at Stanford and law school at Yale. He then taught in London before moving back to Missouri to plot his political future. When running for Attorney General in 2016, he aired ads blasting his opponents as only being concerned with using the Attorney General role as a springboard for higher office. (The ad used a bunch of ladders to illustrate the point.) But then, after winning election as Attorney General, he does the very thing that he excoriated his opponents for doing. Barely more than a year later, he ran for Senator.
But it's more than that. He claims to be in touch with the average Missourian while not even living or having a house in Missouri. In order to vote in this past fall's election in Missouri, he used his sister's address as his own address. Why? Because the only house he owns and lives at is in Virginia. In early January, after making it known that he was going to contest the presidential election results on January 6, he whined and complained about people who demonstrated outside of his Virginia home. He blasted them on Twitter. He said they made his wife and young child feel threatened. But what happened when rioters broke into the U.S. Capitol a few days later and actually threatened and killed people? He went hours without saying a damn word about it before issuing a lame tweet sort of condemning the attack. He's a smarmy, calculating, power hungry snake who will do and say whatever he thinks might help him get elected to higher office. While I thought Trump was dangerous, I think Hawley is even MORE dangerous because he's more polished and more capable of concealing his schemes and machinations.
Rush Limbaugh - I'm not one to rejoice over the death of anyone, but I will say that the world is definitely a better place without Rush Limbaugh on the airwaves. He was intolerant and divisive and he helped foment the political discord that has been growing in this country for the past few decades. I'll never understand how a thrice divorced drug addict ever managed to become a voice for so-called "family values." Then again, many of the people who viewed him as such also thought a twice-divorced, adulterous con man was a great president, so perhaps those folks are a bit delusional. Unfortunately, Limbaugh is a native Missourian, so the yahoos in Jeff City want to honor him with a Rush Limbaugh Day in Missouri. Because celebrating a garrulous, xenophobic bigot is always such a good look for a state. Sadly, these days, it seems very on-brand for the Show-Me State.
QAnon/MAGA Morons - Have all of those doofuses who bought into the whole QAnon satanic pedophile cabal, Donald Trump as savior people come to their senses yet? Or are they still waiting with baited breath for that much ballyhooed Emergency Broadcast Message? The fact that so many people fell for that garbage would be incredibly sad if it wasn't so scary.
Minimum Wage Increases - I realize that most of my rant thus far as skewed to the left, so let me balance it out a bit. There's still a lot of talk about a $15 national minimum wage. This is, quite frankly, not a great idea. While I agree that a $7.25 minimum wage is too low, I think we need to rely on states, municipalities and businesses to address the issue rather than it be driven by federal edict. Thirty states + DC along with countless cities have already increased their respective minimum wages above (and, in most cases, well above) the federal minimum wage. While I think the "minimum wage hikes kill jobs" argument made by some conservatives is a little overblown, there is a tipping point where an increase in wages will result in either more automation or fewer hours for those low wage employees. I also think that the wage rates necessary in Seattle or San Francisco or New York may not make as much sense in Poplar Bluff, MO or Tifton, GA. While it's unconscionable for employers like Amazon to skimp on employee wages while making money hand-over-fist, I also know that there are some small businesses that genuinely can't afford to pay every one of their employees twice as much as they are now. They are already hanging on by a thread and the increased cost could put them out of business. Rather than taking a one size fits all approach, I think it needs to be an approach that's tailored both by the geographic location of the business as well as the size of said business. A Target or a Walmart in a large city or suburban area can afford to pay more per hour than a small diner or antiques business in a small town and they shouldn't both be forced to play by the same set of rules.
I think the people advocating for the $15 federal minimum wage need to look at what has happened at grocery stores and big box stores all across the country over the last decade. Go to a Target or a Walmart and notice that only a few registers have cashiers (with undoubtedly long lines) while the number of "self service kiosks" has increased. This is partly a response to increased wages for employees. They may pay the employees $12 an hour instead of $9 an hour but they are also going to have fewer of those employees and more self checkouts. I'm not saying I agree with that approach by the corporations but we also need to be realistic and acknowledge that it exists and it might be exacerbated if we push the wage envelope too far too fast.
College Loan Forgiveness - Let me start out by saying that I am incredibly grateful that my parents paid for my college education, so I was able to graduate without any student debt. My wife and I are fortunate enough to be in a position to do the same for our kids. Having said that, I know there are millions of young people who rely on college loans in order to get that college degree. However, the notion that we should just up and forgive all college loans doesn't strike me as a good idea, either. If banks and other loan agencies are just forced to forgive that debt and not collect that money, that money still has to come from somewhere - either the government or they are going to raise interest rates on other loans. Also, forgiving college loans now may make it more difficult to get similar loans for future prospective students. What bank or agency is going to lend a student money if they know they aren't ever going to get that money back? Rather than focusing on just unilaterally forgiving college loans, the focus should be on making college more affordable in the first place to reduce the need for those loans. One of the best ways to do that is for state governments to stop cutting education funding or diverting that money to other pet projects. If states did a better job of funding their colleges and universities, those schools could potentially keep tuition lower. More affordable tuition = less need for loans.
The Filibuster in the U.S. Senate - Many people much smarter than me have written treatises in support of and against the filibuster. In short, the filibuster essentially means than it takes 60 votes in the Senate to approve a bill and pass it into law. There are a few ways around it but that is the general intent. However, the result is that only the most non-controversial legislation ever gets passed and instead our Senators waste their time and our tax money mindlessly arguing and engaging in partisan politics. For most of the first 200 years of our country, the filibuster and this "60 vote" threshold was seldom employed. It wasn't until the 1970s when it became more common. The result? In the late 1950s (1957-59), 25% of bills introduced in the Senate became law. By 2005, that number had been cut in half to 12.5%. Just 5 years later, in 2010, that amount was a miniscule 2.8%. So, when it seems like Congress never does anything, it's because they don't and the filibuster is a big culprit of that. The notion that 59% of a voting body can be in favor of something but essentially be overruled by 41% is not healthy. I understand that, conceptually, the 60 vote threshold should result in more moderate legislation in order to get enough buy-in to get it passed. But as American politics have become more and more partisan and compromise has become a dirty word, it has just resulted in gridlock and a lack of bills being passed. The other impact is that it has resulted in more increased use of executive orders by presidents. Because the Senate has, in essence, abdicated their responsibility and can't get anything passed, the executive branch instead tries to get things done via executive fiat. This can be a very dangerous path and it is surely not what the Founders had in mind when they tried to craft a government with three co-equal branches. I think we can all agree that we do not want the executive branch - regardless of which party holds the White House - to become too powerful. The time has come to dump the filibuster - something that isn't required by the Constitution - and move to a simple majority vote. In this way, perhaps Congress can actually spend time legislating and passing laws as opposed to doing little else besides arguing.
The Golden Globes - I'll finish things on a less serious (and less political) note and give my take on a few huge misses by The Golden Globes in terms of nominations. The fact that Better Call Saul, one of the best shows on TV (not just currently but ever) is not nominated for best drama series is a JOKE. The show is nuanced, the cinematography is incredible, the acting top notch and the gradual unfolding of the titular character from ambulance chasing Jimmy McGill to the criminal lawyer Saul Goodman of Breaking Bad is nothing short of brilliant. It's criminal (pun intended) that the show wasn't even nominated. Likewise, the fact that Rhea Seehorn's didn't receive a nomination for her portrayal of Kim Wexler is ridiculous. She was arguably as big a piece of last season as Bob Odenkirk's title character and the fact that she didn't even receive a nomination is an injustice. Her performance in the final scene of the penultimate episode of the season ALONE should have garnered a nomination. It was an incredibly tense scene that was largely carried by Seehorn. Also, I'm about 3/4 of the way through the final season of Schitt's Creek and I still don't understand what the fuss is all about. I'll tackle that a bit more in an upcoming blog post but I think that show is every bit as overrated as Better Call Saul is underrated. I am in total agreement with the serious and multiple acting nominations for Ozark, a show that has gotten better with each successive season. My only beef with that show - aside from Julia Garner's way too frequent use of the f word - is that it wasn't actually filmed in Missouri.
Whew....that was a long one with a lot of content. Thanks for sticking with it through the whole thing and reading it until the end. I feel better having gotten that rant out of my system.
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