ALL POSTS
WHAT’S YOUR PERSPECTIVE
How you see the world, what motivates your policy decisions, and which party you support, depends deeply on your personal perspective on the basic assumptions of society’s mores and responsibilities. I wanted to take some time to address these assumptions and to…
THE MOU THAT ROARED
“It’s no use of talking unless people understand what you say.” Zora Neale Hurston One reason it takes so long to negotiate any agreement, particularly one between two very different cultures, is that each word means so much to each side. Careless wordsmithing can…
IN DEFENSE OF CALIFORNIA’S VOTING
IN DEFENSE OF CALIFORNIA’S VOTING Little raises my hackles more quickly than politicians misstating reality for partisan expediency. And so it is with respect to the California voting system. I am not talking about the “jungle” primaries. This is an interesting…
REVERSIBLE OR PERMANENT (PART 2)
In Part I of this essay, I tried to make the point that every President does things that are each citizen must assess as either good for the country or not. Policy positions can be debated and revised by subsequent administrations. Lawns on the White House grounds…
REVERSIBLE OR PERMANENT (PART 1)
There are things that any President does that should be applauded, and others that should be condemned. I have been troubled by the sense today that some, on both sides of the political divide, would choose to condemn everything from a President they don’t like and…
THE JCPOA AND ITS SUNSET PROVISIONS
I have heard from some people that the JCPOA was a bad agreement that needed to be cancelled because it created a pathway for Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. Therefore, it becomes important to understand exactly what sunset provisions were in the JCPOA, and their…
WHAT SHOULD WE DO TO “WIN” IN IRAN?
Many have asked me, “So, what would you do in Iran?” My focus has not been on that issue. My focus has been on how the US can successfully negotiate a peace with Iran, and how either side can trust the other to hold up its end of the deal. That being said, here are…
MISCALCULATING REDISTRICTING
In 1785 the poet Robert Burns wrote a poem called “To a Mouse”, regretting that the natural union between man and mouse had been destroyed by farmers plowing fields, destroying the homes and food sources of mice. The most famous stanza of the poem is the penultimate:…
A FOLLOWUP ON FERTILIZER
IMPORTANT NOTE: This essay IS NOT about supporting Iran. My analysis of the results of the conflict is totally independent of any consideration of the validity of the military action. The costs of the conflict to the U.S. are important to understand. Those…
A FOLLOWUP BASED ON THE EVENTS OF THIS MORNING
Today marks some progress in the Iran War. It is not settled. It is not won. The ceasefire is now in place according to the understandings of both Iran and the U.S. Here is what has happened: The Iranian Foreign Minister posted this morning, “In line with the…
TRYING TO MAKE A DEAL
NOTE: Nothing that I write below should in any way be read as an endorsement of Iran, its theocracy, its leadership, or its culpability. I, like I imagine most of you who read this, would like to see a cessation of hostilities before the U.S. chooses to destroy the…
BIRTHRIGHT CITIZENSHIP
As we follow the arguments before the Supreme Court regarding the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, there are some questions that we might ask ourselves. I am not an attorney, have never studied law, nor am I a constitutional scholar. I am just an interested…