Some random thoughts in the home stretch.
American BORG
My congressman Aaron Bean attended a naturalization ceremony and posted a picture on his Facebook page. One of his loyal MAGA supporters posted a comment which included the phrase, “shows you that some people DO ACTUALLY plan on assimilating.” Who are these people? THE BORG? It certainly is an apt metaphor for MAGA. Especially if you imagine Donald Trump as the Borg queen (to be reprised by Alice Krige in the Jonathan Frakes sequel to his 1996 production “Star Trek: First Contact.”)
The Scariest Halloween Decoration
This morning I was walking our rescue dog Bucky in an upper-middle class residential community when I came upon a house that was decked out in Halloween paraphernalia (pictured).
Though hard to see due to the shadow, there is a Trump sign in the window on the left (the HOA does not allow yard signs). The scene reminded me of former “Daily Show” correspondent Roy Wood, Jr.’s observation about efforts to discourage folks from displaying the Confederate army’s Stars and Bars.
But if we get rid of the confederate flags (pause) how am I going to know who the dangerous white people are? I’m just saying, the flag had a couple of up sides.
In this case, if you are Muslim, Haitian, transgender or a Jewish Harris voter, you mind want to move on to the next house.
Tarnished Silver
This week, FiveThirtyEight founder and former editor Nate Silver, the man who would run 1,000 simulations of a presidential election to make sure his predictions were as precise as humanly possible, surprised followers with a New York Times op-ed titled, “Here’s what my gut tells me about the election, but don’t trust anyone’s gut, even mine.” I could spend the rest of this post explaining why one’s gut is the most reliable predictor and, if like Silver, you don’t trust it, it is wrong to call it a gut feeling. Call it a hunch. Mere speculation. Or anything else but a gut feeling.
During my tenure as a professor of entrepreneurship, students would bring me their “great” idea for a new enterprise. Even if I believed the concept had potential, I would point out some flaw, even one I knew could easily be addressed in the business plan. If a student then said, “I guess it’s not that great after all,” the discussion was over. If they gave up that easily, that was the best indication what they believed in their gut. However, if they pushed back, “You don’t get it,” my response was, “then make me get it.” Or if they said, “I guess I have to find a way to address that flaw,” I would offer any assistance I could.
Richard Haas, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, offered a more apt description of the state of the election. “This race is not even. It is opaque.” In other words, this election is so different from any other and there are so many variables, polls tell us nothing about the outcome.
The Red Flag Law We Need
A red flag law (named after the idiom red flag meaning “warning sign“) is a gun law that permits a state court to order the temporary seizure of firearms (and other items regarded as dangerous weapons, in some states) from a person who they believe may present a danger.
~Wikipedia Definition
Imagine a member of your household told you that your next door neighbor was eating cats and dogs. Or that neighbor represented a greater threat than the dictators of Russia, China and North Korea. He considered Adolf Hitler a role model. Thought the U.S. military should shoot peaceful protesters. Whether there was a red flag law in your state or not, you would check to see if that individual had been purchasing and stockpiling firearms.
Now imagine that person is the president of the United States. And has a stockpile of nuclear weapons purchased with your tax dollars. You would think someone might seek a court order to restrict the president’s access to them. To the contrary, the U.S. Supreme Court said that person, as commander-in-chief, can do whatever he wants with his cache of weapons of mass destruction with complete immunity.
On November 5, 2024, the only available court of jurisdiction is the upcoming election. Do you really want to wait to see if that person, who has demonstrated such anger and vitriol, wakes up one morning, and decides as he suggested in 2017, that he could “use a nuclear weapon against North Korea and suggested he could blame a U.S. strike against the communist regime on another country”? Or, if offended by something Emmanuel Macron of Gavin Newsom said, even decimate France or California?
For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP