JackTReason

It is one week after election day. The obvious reality to anyone not in the cult is that the race is over and the results show Donald John Trump was defeated. But Trump hasn’t conceded and now he is trying to snag a win with a Hail Mary. He thinks he can get enough traction about fraud to convince legislatures in Republican controlled states to overturn the vote and send their own electors in place. It might not even work, he’d need a lot of help, and there are players missing. I’ve mentioned this before but would be conspirators to crime often get cold feet. In other words, Trump can’t pull it off because people don’t think it will work and aren’t dying on this fence. But he sure can try and he can sure do a lot of vindictive damage, which I will add seems just like him to do.

Trump is leaving office likely facing federal and state charges of one sort or another. Perhaps many. He’s trying to avoid jail, and more importantly a trial. A trial eats up money and time he would use for his next deal. What comes after this for Trump? Nothing good unless he and other parties can come to an arrangement.

What does he want? Easy, he and his family face no charges at any level. Not for anything. Taxes, self-dealing, fraud, everything is off the table. He could want other things, including bankruptcy protection, but he needs immunity.

What does Trump have to offer? Peace, I suppose is the best way to describe it. He has a virtual army of men with rifles that would commit mayhem on his word. Many of these men have organized themselves into gangs which they self-style as militia. Trump might well be able to plunge the country into civil war. His back is against the wall and he fights like a rat. Right now he is making a public pitch that the election is invalid because he feels he couldn’t possibly lose. He cries cheat and his core base eat it up. And for all the love of country those people profess, many of Trump’s base hold allegiance to him first. And they cannot see the difference. They have literally embossed Trump’s name and likeness across the face the United States Flag and stuck it at the ends of their driveways. And even if some of them get cold feet, there are so many others that are waiting to start.

The short of it is that he can unleash a great terror on opponents both political and societal.

He could offer to take that away. Though a civil war here would more resemble the one in Spain than the one we had in America, it would still be a bloody mess. An ideological war between left and right. (Mostly.)

Meanwhile in the Senate.

What about the Senate? What’s going on there? The Senate race North Carolina has been conceded. The Democrat conceded to the Republican as a gesture of cooperation. But this is larger than that. It guarantees a Republican Senate for the next two years. With leadership knowing that they have control and therefor can strictly limit legislation, there is less incentive to go all in with Trump and join his executive coup attempt.

I’ll go one step further. I think it is possible that this is part of a deal that is mostly complete in detail. The nuts and bolts are that we get free of Trump and the fascist future he represents, and avoid open rebellion; but we lose the ability to get a lot of progressive work done, and we can’t get national revenge on Trump.

But should we make that deal?

“We’d be sending a message to all future would be dictators that they won’t be punished for trying.” I’ve heard that too. I’ve probably even said it. But the reality is that anyone with the power to try doing it isn’t concerned about punishment if he fails.

The ugly side is we might face a civil war. Regardless of what happens to Trump we may anyway. Trump was an answer to their problems for a lot of people. They still have the same problems now. But Trump could certainly plug the cord. It would certainly be better to give us a chance to bend things back to a more unified focus. America against the virus to start, and go from there. Conflict of such a nature should be avoided unless the actual Republic is under threat.

And Trump has some control over this.

It is naive to think they won’t make a deal. Just telling Trump to get out and daring him to start a war is a bad strategy. Make a deal and he concedes. And whatever deal it better disallow Trump stoking unrest or fomenting rebellion in the future. Make that deal and we get peace and a chance to unify. Because the alternative is we kill each other.

I hear some people are still thinking that we are rushing to conclude that the election is decided.
That Democrats are pushing our national acceptance of a Biden victory before the results are certain. This isn’t true.
Of course there are still votes to count, but not enough to change the outcome.
Of course there will be at least one recount, but we have a long history of recounts and they have never moved enough votes as separate the candidates today, nor is it likely they will.
Of course the states electors haven’t met to vote, and the states haven’t certified the vote; but again, the long history of our democratic process shows that this too will be followed like the ones in the past.
Leaders from around the world are calling to congratulate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris already, because they have seen us do elections for many generations. The process is normal.

No one is rushing to judgment. Except the President when he claimed victory before the votes were counted.

But the thing is, this is how previous elections have gone. The votes are cast and when there aren’t enough uncounted votes left to change where things stand, the Associated Press “calls” the election. In that they predict what can’t change mathematically.
Just like they have done in elections going back a long time. No, their call isn’t official, but it doesn’t need to be because it is a reflection of reality. The official part is legal formality.
By now in any other election the loser would have conceded to the will of the people and offered a wish of success to the winner. It isn’t close enough to do otherwise.

While the President has the right to challenge close calls, his doing so under the circumstances of so great a difference demonstrates his mistrust of American democracy. Changing the outcome could only be done by either demonstrating with factual evidence that he is right to mistrust it, or by staging an executive coups with the aid of courts and legislatures.
But for all the talk by radical cultists, when time comes for the necessary political actors to throw their hands in, they are unwilling to do so. Is it fear of failure and prison? Is it fear of the civil unrest that would follow? Is it love of our democratic values? Or is it simply political expediency? After all, the Republicans gained a few Representatives and may well hold the Senate. Add to that conservative federal courts at many levels and they probably don’t think trying to keep Trump in office worthwhile.

I am reminded of the end of the movie Seven Days In May, staring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Frederic March, and other stars. When the leader of the coup was exposed and confronted, his sycophants and toadies lost their nerve.

Perhaps one day memoirs will reveal some similar tension in the White House. Perhaps Trump and his capos were ready to cross that line. Maybe they are counting oaths to see who will join, and finding insufficient support. I don’t know, but for a long time it smelled like the plan they were hatching.
But Trump hasn’t called for an uprising. He isn’t winking at his “2nd Amendment people.” He hasn’t tried to take custody of ballots, as was suggested by his ally Roger Stone. He didn’t send federal police and brown shirt “militias” into the streets to chase away voters. And the calls his lackeys are making for state legislatures to dismiss the votes of their citizens and offer their own slate of electors seem to be gaining zero traction.
The declarations Trump is making about fraud and cheating will only ring and then echo in the minds of his devoted base. The rest of those who supported him are disappointed but accepting.

There is no rush, but there is a process that follows the vote.

Tomorrow we vote.

This is how we decide who will lead us. We vote. And then we count the vote and we go forward with (most) people hoping that whoever wins does a good job. And we keep working to find the best way forward for us all.
There was always disagreement, and there was always agreement too. Keep working on the agreements until things get better.

John Wayne was an arch conservative. Look him up if you didn’t know that. He supported Nixon in the 1960 election for President, but when JFK won, Wayne said that he didn’t vote for Kennedy, but he’s my president now, so I hope he does a good job.

This has been a difficult year for many reasons. We are at each others throats over several things, and nature has chosen now to deliver us a pandemic.

It is times like this we realize that we still have to work together to overcome the problems that we face. And our problems should never be the other citizens because of their politics, religion, or diet.

We have so much to get done and together is how we must do it.

We have had some very tough times in this country. We have disagreed most of the time about something. We’ve even come to blows, with people beaten and killed in the streets; just like now. The Vietnam War and Civil Rights pitted us against each other. The anarchism of one hundred years ago had bombs being set off in the streets. And union men fought bloody fights to gain the working rights and regulations that we have today. And before all of those when the issue of slavery came to a head, we went to war against each other.

And looking back we wish the conflicts had not happened, but it is fairly easy to see that there was a right side in each of those fights. Imperfect yes, but more right than the other. Try to be sure you are on the right side. Many have been wrong.

But we got through all of these things. And together we march toward the future. We’ve never failed unless our unity broke.

Our secret has always been faith in majority rule. It goes to the core of civilization. Majority rule, with protection against abuse of the minority.

Every club we join, every organization formed from the people, we elect governing bodies and trust that more of us will be right most of the time. We make mistakes, and later we correct them. Sometimes that takes awhile. But bit by bit we forge a better country and world.

It is the founding ideal of our Republic. Let We The People choose our representatives and leaders to guide us. Let the losers remember that they would expect to lead if they had won, so they must respect the will of The People when they don’t.

We all think that we have a better idea of what should happen than do others, but we all can’t be right; at least not about the same things. So we compromise and work together. Nobody gets it exactly their way. But the whole effort brings a better country. If it is better for me but not for you, then I lose out on what you would contribute. Our victories must include us all. And often that means us accepting less than we want.
And at our core we get it. We thrive because of, amongst other things, we have faith in the democratic principles that inspired our forefathers.

This is ALL of our country. We can share and work together in spite of our differences. We can forgive each others name calling and ugliness and get on with the work of everyone’s success.

Peace to you all. I’ll see you all after the election.

Jack T Reason.

To some of you good folks who are still planning to vote for Trump.

We all know that some of his supporters are vile people, so know that I am not speaking to them.

I understand the appeal four years ago. Trump was brash and independent. He was going to shake things up and upend the system that you felt had ignored and abandoned you. He would bring his get things done attitude to Washington and make things right.

Yes, you heard the awful things he said about people. You watched him make fun of a disabled man. You listened to him brag about sexually assaulting women. You heard about the porn star. But we’ve all said and done things we weren’t proud of, and you weren’t electing a scoutmaster.

Maybe it rankled you a bit when he called the free press “the enemy of the people.” Because you know that the job of the press is to inform the people of what those in power are doing. Honest and just politicians might not like what the press says about them, but they have nothing to fear from them. Sure, that is what authoritarians and dictators like Stalin, Mussolini, and Hitler used to call the press, but you let it slide. Trump was not used to the press and didn’t always say the right thing.

And you put blinders on as things got uglier. The defense of white supremacists, the attack on black Americans and women, snatching babies from refugee mothers at our border and locking them in cages must have slipped past you. Perhaps you just dismissed all that as lies told by Trump haters. Confronting the horror of people fleeing the only homes they have known and throwing themselves on the mercy of the great America, only to be treated like animals and have your children taken away and caged would break the heart of anyone who really thought about it.

Maybe the constant lying and narcissistic behavior was just part of what you got with a guy who was getting things done.

And maybe you became numb to it all and the attacks against lawful protests, the obvious racism, the cozying up to dictators, the working our government for personal profit, etc., etc., etc.

You tried not to think about his draft-dodging during the Vietnam War. After all, it was an unpopular war that many people tried to avoid. And you weren’t going to believe the reports of him calling those who served America “suckers,” and those who were killed “losers,” even though he said as much about genuine American heroes and their families on camera in front of microphones.

You knew when you voted for him that he was uncouth, brash, mean, and dirty; and you cast your ballot for him anyway.

But what you didn’t know then, what few if any of us knew back then, is that he is a psychopath.

A couple weeks ago the FBI and Michigan State Police arrested more than a dozen men for conspiring to kidnap the Governor that that state, as well as launch an armed attack against the state capitol to start a civil war. These domestic terrorists claimed that they were going to “arrest” the Governor and secret her away to Wisconsin for a trial for treason. Never mind the disregard of the Constitution they were supposed to be defending, or any actual crimes.

Trump complained that the Governor didn’t thank him personally, for allowing the FBI to stop the conspiracy. And then this Saturday agreed with a crowd of passionate devotees that they should “lock her up.”

What sane person would do this? Who but a psychopath would continue to fan the flames of lawlessness and violence in the aftermath of so real a threat?

Add to this his unfounded and imagined claims of crimes by his opponents, and his insistence that his Attorney General should invent some charges against those who oppose him, and you have a full-blown lunatic. He believes and repeats wacko conspiracies and threatens retribution against anyone who stands up to him. 

You must take notice of the hundreds, no thousands, of committed Republican politicians, former politicians, retired generals, admirals, and ex-government officials who are all endorsing and voting for Trump’s opponent Joe Biden. This isn’t because they agree with the policies Biden endorses, but because he is an honorable man who will work for good government, and that electing him will stop Trump’s deranged attack against our Republic.

What do they fear? Well, I recently saw a quote online. I don’t recall who it was from, so I apologize for not acknowledging the author, but the quote was,

“Hitler wasn’t Hitler until he had unfettered power.”

Turn away from Trump. Stop dismissing his critics and stop defending his actions.

I have always enjoyed going to the polls on election day. For all the study I’ve done about what people went through so that I may cast a vote and share in the democratic process, I consider voting a sacred honor.

Going back multiple great-grandfathers, voting has been a tradition since the founding of the country. I don’t have the voting records, but as a volunteer in Washington’s Continental Army, I’m sure my ancestor wouldn’t have skipped voting in that first election. Of course he was a property owning white man, so voting would have been his honor and duty.
So I now also vote to honor all of those who had to wait and fight to earn their voting rights. Those who didn’t own property, those who weren’t white, those who weren’t men. To not vote would be to spit in the eyes of all of those too, along with my own ancestors.

For me it is an event to dress for. Often I will don a suit and tie, and shine up a pair of oxfords. At the minimum I’ll appear in a blazer or sport coat, but a tie is always around the collar of a freshly pressed shirt.
I greet the poll workers cheerfully and thank them for taking the time to help with this important cause. And it is so very important. Our entire system of government hinges on us doing so in a free and fair manner.

After getting and completing my ballot I turn it in and collect an “I voted” sticker and proudly wear it for the rest of the day. I used to have a paper that I stuck them to. I lost it somewhere in a move, and have no idea how many stickers were attached. Now, I’ve taken to sticking them on my computer monitor. This is self regulating, as I can’t completely fill the perimeter with them before I need a new monitor. Oh yes, there are votes to cast most every year, and even more then once. There are local elections, votes on milages, primary elections, besides the general. I get them all. It is my sacred duty, remember. I would be shirking my responsibility as a citizen to be unaware of an election. Democracy is a participatory process.

When I was a sailor I often voted absentee. This was fine, I was gone. But I always looked forward to elections where I was home so I could participate in person.
This year is different. Though I expect to be around, I will definitely be staying home. There is a pandemic afoot, and I would like to vote in many more elections in the years to come.

But voting is no less sacred this year. And more important than any in any year of my life. For this year it may well be that the democracy that supports our republic is on the line. As in generations past, Fascism is alive and growing. Oh sure, they aren’t calling it that, but make no mistake,

It is what it is.

But fortune has shined on the state of Michigan. During the last election we passed by voter initiative a law allowing for absentee voting without reason. Previously you had to apply and swear to a reason you couldn’t vote in person. Now, just ask for a ballot and do your duty from the safety of home.

I Dropped my ballot off at the Township Hall the other day. My vote will be cast and counted. Across the country millions more have done or are doing the same.

On Election Day I will be secure in my home away from the scourge of SARS-CoV-2. But I’ll know that I’ve done my part and completed that most sacred duty.

And I will absolutely be wearing a suit.

I enlisted in the U.S. Navy when I was 13 years old. Or at least I tried to. I was a bit large for my age and faked my birth certificate to say I was 18. It didn’t work, as my mother stepped in when the recruiter showed up to take me to AFEES (Armed Forces Examining And Entrance Station.)

But when I was 17 I convinced her to sign permission for me to join for real. It was 1977.

There were many reasons fueling my desire to enlist, from being the last of nine children at home smothering under a parent who didn’t want to let go, to a drifting and directionless view of my future, to my ever unquenchable wanderlust. But more than all of that was my desire to be part of something bigger than myself. Something I saw as necessary and worthy of commitment.
Sure I had those notions of glory and honor that pervade all boys becoming men, and the structure and rigidity of military life sounded great for one without a father who was left largely to raise himself; but I truly wanted to follow in the footsteps of so many American men who put aside individual recognition and became that cog in a gear in a great machine whose whole mission was to protect the rest of the people.

I spent four years on active duty, with part spent aboard a ship based at Norfolk, and the larger portion aboard one at San Francisco.

I won’t sugarcoat the story and pretend that it was all great or that I was the model sailor. I broke some rules and went to Captain’s Mast (non-judicial punishment.) But I managed to reach the rank of Petty Officer Third Class and earned the respect of the men below me and the officers above. Truthfully, prior to my discharge, the ship’s captain wrote to my mother and asked her to try and encourage me to re-enlist. Though I didn’t earn a Good Conduct Medal, my discharge was honorable.

I’ll pass over the part about life at sea and the adventures of a young man visiting exotic places, as well as the dangers encountered and the moments of peril.

I’ll note that this service followed freshly the US experience in Vietnam and the uprising of popular anger that lead to our quitting that war. We all heard stories of returning soldiers being spit on by American anti-war protestors. But I knew that they were a minority who were misguided in laying blame for that war at the feet of those cogs in the gear, and didn’t believe that the country as a whole felt that way.

And though in Norfolk, Virginia and in Alameda, California the townsfolk who had to deal with thousands of drunk and rowdy sailors developed a “Dogs And Sailors Keep Off The Grass” attitude, I knew that the people at large and around the country held a mostly positive attitude toward us for doing our job.

The major events of my enlistment were the Civil War in Yemen and the Iran Hostage Crisis, both of which extended our deployment and raised our level of alert.
But I never witnessed a shot fired in anger, nor engaged an enemy. It was the peacetime Navy that I served in. There were encounters with our adversary of the day, the Soviet Navy, and many storms at sea – some of which certainly could have killed us. But nothing about what we did can be compared to the lives of our forbearers of wars past, or of the dangers faced by uniformed men and women who came later and went to Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iraq again.

When people thank me for my service I feel a slight amount of guilt, because I know that in their eyes there is no distinction between the frontline troops who took fire in combat and those of us who spent our service years in (relative) safety. 

Later, as a civilian mariner – a deck officer on merchant ships, I volunteered again, this time to carry the supplies and munitions the country needed to prosecute the actions of Desert Shield and Desert Storm. I spent the whole of the shooting war in the Persian Gulf, and this time took fire from the enemy in the form of a Scud Missile (it missed.)

But the job I did wasn’t attacking the enemy or defending in a battle. It was supporting the effort. It was holding together a crew of men who were brave enough to volunteer to go, but who were mostly emotionally ill-equipped to be in a war zone.

After the ground forces went in and the battle against Saddam Hussain was won, I saw and talked to a soldier who had been wounded. I met a tank commander who seemed to be coming to terms with how many enemy tanks he had destroyed and how many men had been killed. My hopes for these men to go on to happy lives in peace has never left my mind.

Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 the national support for our women and men at arms has only grown. We are a country that admires and respects those who enlist at a level not seen since the Greatest Generation fought against the fascists.

(Fascists. That is a word I did not think I would ever use outside of a conversation about history. But here we are in 2020 and they are trying to hold sway in America.)

But we as a people are eager to let those who have served their country know that we appreciate their courage, their sacrifice, and the honor they show the country they love. I am with them. Both as a recipient of the thanks (however deserved I am,) and as one who thanks. Perhaps because I know the difference between the support guy in the back who helps and those who took and gave fire, I thank them with a bit more understanding and appreciation for what they have done. And I know that the biggest difference between those who lived and those who died was luck. And that those families who never saw their child, husband, wife, or parent again, or those who welcomed back those who would spend years or their whole lives coping with the damage the war had done to them, deserve our thanks and respect. And they deserve our help.

Maybe none of them truly thought they would be the one killed or wounded, or that the war experience would drive them to suicide or thoughts of same. But they each and all knew that this was bigger than just them. The country. The Constitution. This Republic that has changed the world.

Where am I going with this?

The recent story in the Atlantic Magazine that revealed some of the deplorable things that our President, Donald J. Trump said about those who served and those who were wounded, and those who died in answer to the call of duty to country upset me. It upset me much more than I expected it to. This is because it does not surprise me.

It isn’t a surprise because of the numerous things he has said in front of an open microphone. Both about our acknowledged heroes and the families who survived them.

It isn’t a surprise because he shirked his obligation to serve and used his family money and power to avoid the draft. Our President is a draft dodger. He thinks those who didn’t avoid Vietnam were suckers.

And while I knew about that, and I heard him say such awful things about gold star families and about John McCain, and many other things. And it has been clear for all of the years that he has been in the public eye that he only cares about himself, it is still revolting to hear that it goes beyond disregard for those who served. It is his disdain for our heroes. It is his petty need to never let anyone’s heroics outshine his own self opinion. It is his utter lack of understanding that service to others is the greatest thing we can do.
Service is our highest calling.

And I know that his devoted followers, whether veterans or not, will deny that this is true and continue to attack anyone who disapproves of Trump, but for those of us who are not in his cult we must reject him. We must repudiate him. The name Trump should evermore be synonymous with villain.

Not just for me and the paltry service that I offered, as sincere and effective as it was. But for all those who didn’t have to go but did. And all of those who looked upon this country and our ideals as worthy of sacrifice. And all those who know what it means to serve something bigger than your own desires. And for all of us who look upon a service man or woman and say thank you. You are not suckers. You are not losers.

You are heroes.

I didn’t listen to Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech, as I have had enough of him. But what is being reported is not a surprise to me. The surprise would be words of unity and cooperation. He continues to play the same card as in 2016. Blame the left with overt language, and those of brown and black skin with covert hints and dog whistles.We hear and will hear more implied calls to violence, couched in the language of hatred, pointing his racist finger at those who look different than his aryan ideal.
But what is different is that the America has rounded a corner. A new card and been flipped. The worm has turned. People who turned a deaf ear to his worst messages are starting to see him for what he is and they don’t like it.
There are many who are what I call “soft racists.” They fear groups of the other, and they believe that inner-city blacks bring the police problems on themselves with lawless actions. They have accepted the con that things are basically equal, and that institutional racism doesn’t really exist except in some small towns in the deep south. But they don’t consider themselves racist. They reject that appellation outright.
What Trump has done recently is take racist stands that are less covert. His defense of Confederate Statues that were placed during the apex of the Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s or in response to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, his denunciation of Antifa (which only stands against fascism), and his claim that Black Lives Matter is a symbol of hate; all demand that those who do not think themselves racist accept the label and fall in line.
This, for many of them, is a line they will not cross.
Some are truly digging deep to analyze their own feelings and prejudices, and others are simply learning some truths about how our world looks through the eyes of minorities; but many more still are simply rejecting what they cannot ignore. They are troubled by what they cannot un-see. His call to dominate American citizens. The dismissal of the right of The People to protest and seek redress of grievances, setting loose bands of armed blackshirts on peaceful protestors so he can get a picture with a bible someone leant him.
They may want a conservative country, and they may never embrace radical or even progressive reforms, but they won’t call themselves racist, and they increasingly can’t ignore this President displaying that he is.
They are walking away from him.
They are rejecting his divisiveness. They are accepting that something is wrong with this man and that his occupation of the highest office in the land is harmful to us all. MAGA has been revealed to mean take America back to before we had a black President, to before laws against red-lining, to before America’s broad acceptance of equality, and to before the Civil Rights Act. We are seeing now that it means nothing more than this.
And America has caught on.
The only way Trump stays in office after January 20th is through fraud and usurpation.
I call now for all Americans to reject by whatever means necessary any election outcome in 2020 that does not remove Donald J. Trump from The Presidency.

A couple of years ago, and in the aftermath of a different murder of a black man by police under the color or law, I was asked by an African American co-worker about Black Lives Matter. Actually, the way he phrased the question was: “Do you think black lives matter or all lives matter?”

This was an excellent question and a perfect opportunity for me to answer the question honestly and with clarity.

I told him my answer is yes, but the explanation is important.

You see, it is all about context.

If you’re in a conversation about the death penalty, health insurance, sending people to war, or what have you; and someone asks if all lives matter, the answer is yes, of course they do. But Black Lives Matter is a movement in direct response to the epidemic of extrajudicial killing of African American men in this country, and a statement that these people are just as worthy of their life and liberty as all the white people who are not being murdered by police. So when someone asks if you think black lives matter, and you respond that all lives matter, you are exposing racism. What you are saying, whether you mean to or not, is that you don’t think there is something unjust and tragic happening, and that we shouldn’t single out black people as worthy of life. You are dismissing the response to the police killing African American men and the national response, protests, and demands that this change. You are responding as if instead of hearing “Black Lives Matter,” you are hearing “Only Black Lives Matter.” This is not the message, and it requires racism (though perhaps subtle racism) to hear that. Because the statement that black lives matter is to draw attention to the killing of black men, not to make some milk toast aphorism about life.

All Lives Matter, as a statement in response is inherently racist. It is racist because it is meant to dismiss the complaint that people have about what is going on, and to replace it with a statement that denies the very truth BLM protests.

The same can be said for Blue Lives Matter. And here it isn’t because the lives of police don’t, but because it is the police who are killing black men. To say that blue lives matter is an equivocation fallacy. It makes it out that it is the police who are at risk in these situations. You may be a supporter of law enforcement, but you should pick a different phrase if you want to announce your support of them. BLM is taken, and to use it to support those who are doing the killing is endorsing those killings.

The Blue Lives Matter movement is in response to Black Lives Matter. It is a challenge to the legitimacy of the complaint about the police murdering African American citizens. It is couched in support of police, but it is a poor attempt to deny the wrong doing they are guilty of.

I happen to think that law enforcement, criminal investigations, and emergency response by police are a good thing. I am grateful when the police are there to serve and protect. But turning our cities into police states, where anything other than immediate compliance to police orders when no such orders appear necessary is not acceptable. We are in need of justice reform in this country as a whole, and a complete review and rewrite of how our police and our citizenry interact.

I keep reading and hearing that it isn’t all police, just a few bad apples. I would love to believe that this is true. And while I’m certain that there are many who are not racist psychopaths willing to murder, I am less certain whether they are even a majority. The numbers of killings by police that not only go unpunished, but that get the protection and cover by fellow police and departments suggests that the “good guy” cops are unable to stop them. All too often they don’t. It is either that they are unable or they are unwilling. Either way, it speaks not of police departments that are mostly good, but with a few bad apples, but of departments where the bad apples hold sway, protected by a system that supports and maybe encourages their actions. Where the good guys are powerless to speak out or stop it.

Last week we saw the video of a police officer calmly crush the life out of a man with his knee while several other police stood by and did nothing. Was this one bad apple? Were the other three cops in agreement with this murder? Or were they just indifferent? And is there really any difference?

If good cops can’t or won’t stop the bad cops, then we might as well concede that there really aren’t any good cops, for all practical purposes.

America needs to regroup and address equality and inequality. We need to take off the rose-colored glasses and see how it is, and work to make things right. And it is more than just our leadership, all though the failings of our President in these matters are horrible and he needs to go away. But this needs to begin with each of us starting with the simple act of acknowledging that there is deep injustice in our country. We need all of the American people to say that Black Lives Matter. Full stop.

No caveats, no all lives, blue lives, or other lives. Just stop it.

Acknowledge the problem.

Here we are again talking about critical thinking. I would love for this to be a course taught at primary school, junior high, high school, and then tested before college or university admissions. Maybe then it would be widespread enough to do some good.

The latest is regarding the current pandemic (coronavirus, covid-19, or more precisely, Sars-CoV-2), and when and how to reopen the country’s economy.

There’s a letter that’s been delivered and is making the rounds instigating for the rapid reopening of the economy. What’s different about this letter is that it is signed by 600 doctors. Yes, these are 600 physicians advocating for abandoning the stay at home orders and getting going.

Of course when I first saw the headline I thought, ‘600 doctors? Perhaps I should read what they have to say?’

It didn’t take long before I figured out that these were 600 pro-Trump doctors who were responding to his call for medical people to get the word out to open up. Their message was tainted with politics, as if their medical credentials have any bearing on political thought, and full – no chock-full – of anecdotes and assertions. No real science behind their claims to begin with, and the two people cited in the news articles were both conservative bloggers, one of whom has a decidedly conspiratorial flavor to the posts on their blog.

This came to me on a Facebook post, and after reading the article and doing a bit of research (again, I didn’t need much), I responded with my critique of their claims, and pointed out their blatant political bias. I compared their insertion of political opinion (including references of losing freedom and becoming accustomed to “Government handouts”), to the CDC’s measured and science-based approach that is void of any political messaging. The response that I got from the original poster called attention to how I had advocated trusting experts, and questioned why I wasn’t doing so now. It also challenged that the government experts must have bias too.

The short of it is that I broke down how and why I came to my conclusion, and how and where I saw bias. I pointed out that while these were indeed doctors and had relevant knowledge, they weren’t experts at all. Maybe I should say, not the best experts. At least not compared to those who work at the CDC and spend their careers studying infectious disease and epidemic spread. Just asking the simple question of “which do you believe?” I will place my bet with the CDC over a group of doctors whose claim aligns with and seems to respond to the request of a narcissist looking for help in his November re-election bid.

The longer of it is that in her questions and response was this underlying assumption that since they were all doctors I should accept their claims and their expertise. There was also this certainty that the government (insert boogeyman music here) is lying and has their own hidden agenda. And further, though not stated directly in the relevant response, the belief that this is a matter of choosing who we trust based on whether or not they align with pro or anti government platforms.

It is in these dialogs that I hear non sequiturs, false equivalencies, and other logical fallacies. And of course heaping helpings of conspiratorial nonsense.

So I have to ask, why don’t people think critically?

I have often been accused of having a closed mind, of not doing my own research, of blindly believing the “official story.” But of course the opposite is mostly true. Both in my approach and in theirs. I do read and listen to government claims critically, as I do with most claims, especially if they line up with something I feel like I’ve always known to be true. The point with this last is that the more certain I am about some old belief, the more I wonder when was the last time I questioned that belief. This leads me to careful re-examination of the subject to ensure that I am not deceiving myself, or building an argument on a false premise. But like I said, the error in on their side too. It is most often they who do not critically examine the claims that inform their beliefs. They are too quick to assume anti-government means truth.

I’ve been there in the past myself. Someone blows your mind with a revelation about something that heretofore you had little of no knowledge, and you feel like a window of truth has been opened to you. Without critical thinking you may be in for a lifetime of using that old assertion to view the subject. It can indeed blind you to other views, and convince you, as evidence against becomes harder to refute, of a greater and greater conspiracy. Soon the “enemy” is seen as duped, then as corrupt, then as evil, and eventually shape-shifting reptilian overlords.

It bodes of a mindset that demands acceptance of a viewpoint without critical examination. The claims made against the government agencies, whether it be the FBI, the FED, the CDC, or others, are all accepted and those agencies actions must be scrutinized for small signals that reveal their guilt; but at no point do they ever critically examine the claims that inform their suspicions. Things that should be obvious with Occam’s Razor in mind are instead warped into increasing levels of hoop-jumping to believe. The simple question of “which is more likely to be true?” is answered so poorly it is clear that they cannot consider the question rationally. They are the blind followers. They are the close-minded. They are sheep that they so very much like calling others.

Which is more likely to be true?

The CDC, which has a mission of protecting people from disease, and is staffed with career scientists and doctors who specialize in this very field, and has consistently provided beneficial warnings, advice, and action in these goals; along with all of the other national and world bodies who are so created, are putting out the best advice available? Or are they actually intensionally misleading the public in complete coordination with those aforementioned other bodies to deceive the public for some as yet un-evidenced nefarious intent?

Sure it is important to be skeptical of any organization, especially one that has governing authority over you, but in lacking actual expertise in disease control, do you trust them, or 600 doctors (a tiny fraction of the medical community) who have a clear political agenda?

This isn’t hard.

I have found a gross misunderstanding of what skepticism is amongst the conspiracy minded. All too often they equate skeptical thought with resistance to learning. They constantly say or imply that I do not have an open mind.
This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Skepticism is not denial of evidence. It is the withholding of belief until sufficient evidence is provided. And here we must first understand that assertion is not evidence. Examining someone’s claim to determine if they have provided sufficient evidence to accept the claim is skepticism. Demanding that an assertion be supported by evidence, and that the evidence so provided is valid and provable rather than speculative is a reasonable minimum. That is being skeptical.
Refusing to accept the evidence when provided is not skepticism; it is irrationality. This is what most of the conspiracy minded people I’ve encountered do.