CHANGE OF SCENERY. Today is a day to explore and try new things. I decided to head out to a different location to blog today. Local casinos during the afternoon are perfect. Empty restaurant. Get a Diet Coke and something light to eat. There’s a nice vibe in here. Subtle upbeat music in background, sports news on TVs.
JOHNNYDAY. I made a declaration this morning that today was JohnnyDay. It’s like the Summer of George. Got a haircut. Made deposits at the bank. Now here blogging. There are no emergencies or stressors that I need to attend to. Today is for me just to work on John Riley Project.
HEGSETH SECURITY BREACH. The big news story is that the strikes on Houtis in Yemen was coordinated in a group chat that mistakenly included a media member from The Atlantic. This morning Tulsi Gabbard, Kash Patel and others were getting finger wagged by Congress over this failure of security. Crazy since GOP made such a fuss over Hillary’s emails on a public server as a breach of security. But political tribalism prevails. Neither team will hold their own guys accountable to the same standard that they apply to the other team. It’s the political gotchya that dominates the news cycle. Why is nobody talking about WHY America is bombing the Houtis? And why is Trump engaging in this conflict without a Congressional Declaration of War? The media and the politicians don’t care much about that. They are just in it for the finger pointing and political games.
POWAY CITY OF RECALLS. The Poway City Council has been flipped on it’s head. The Tony Blain recall campaign is really building up momentum due to the work of John Mullin, John Couvrette and other members of the “Poway Old Guard”. I don’t see Blain surviving this one. At the same time there is an active recall campaign on Peter DeHoff from City Council, but that movement is much weaker than the Blain recall campaign. There’s been at least 1 and maybe 2 recall efforts on Mayor Steve Vaus that never made it to the ballot. Then newly appointed councilman Chris Pikus is involved in a lawsuit. Pikus was nominated by council vote including a vote by his predecessor Brian Pepin who allegedly was not living in Poway t because he was nominated illegally due to former councilmember Brian Pepin voting for Pikus’s appointment when he was no longer a resident of Poway. Newly election councilmember Jenny Maeda must be wondering what she got herself into. I remember talking with former councilmember Merilee Boyack about how difficult it was for challengers to win a seat on council because there were no serious controversies to campaign against. Well that certain changed!
MONEY KILLING COLLEGE SPORTS? The NCAA transfer portal has just opened up and there is already a flood of great talent seeking better deals at bigger schools. The Aztecs lost Magoon Gwath and Nick Boyd to the Transfer Portal. New Mexico lost Mountain West Play of the Year, Donovan Dent, plus Tru Washington. Fans are freaking out. They see big schools with more money cherry picking mid-majors of their best talent. But let’s get some perspective here. If you were in those players’ shoes, would you do the same thing? It seems that some fans expect these talented young players to sacrifice their value in the marketplace just to be loyal to the university. Fans are tribal and they want to keep all of their guys. But players are humans each making choices about their own life while pursuing their happiness. My primary reaction is to congratulate the athlete for the new opportunity and being properly valued for their talent. You can’t hate on the student-athlete. The system does need reform. Having a single transfer window after the post-season makes sense. The idea of big schools compensating smaller schools for their losses might sound fair, but is it? Can you imagine that your new employer would have to pay a fee to your previous employer just for the ability to hire you? Fans think like fans. I get that. But let’s be sure not to condemn a young adult who acquires a better opportunity.
MANUFACTURING ROMANCE. This is not a suggestion on how to spice-up your marriage. This is about the love affair of bringing manufacturing jobs back to America. Progressives like Bernie Sanders have always glorified the working man on the assembly line. It was a good job with union wages and benefits. But now the MAGA crowd is embracing the same thing, but more in the name of nationalism than protecting union jobs. This whole idea is nuts. We are better off with global trade. Imported goods typically cost less than domestic made goods. That means consumers can spend less and use what’s left over in their wallet to invest and spend in other parts of the American economy. Tariffs to protect domestic manufacturing jobs might sound “America First” but the whole idea is unAmerican. The US economy creates more value and profit from services like healthcare and financial services. US needs to be innovating, not trying to build more widgets state-side. Manufacturing jobs are a romance of America’s past. It’s not that different than the romance people have with trains and railroads.
LIBERTY WITHOUT PHILOSOPHY. I’ve always been a freedom fighter. Supporting a woman’s right to choose on abortion was the first political topic I tackled. I’ve also been a supporter of school vouchers even when I was a teenager. At first these just felt like natural impulses. You should be able to decide for you. I later was turned on to Libertarianism as a political alternative to Republicans and Democrats. It felt right, but the libertarian crowd seemed rudderless. They wanted to simply be left alone. They opposed govt policies that coerced them. Libertarians were not really “for” anything of substance. That’s part of the reason I no longer identify as a libertarian. I discovered there needs to be a moral underpinning freedom. There has to be a set of rules about right vs wrong. Objectivism has really opened my eyes to these ideas. What I found interesting today was a long time libertarian, Charles Murray, who said he also no longer identifies as a libertarian. He said he was a Madisonian. He was after the same thing as me. We need a moral code to guide us. It can’t simply be “anything goes”. But the libertarian crowd has many folks that don’t align with my POV. Some were gun nuts that didn’t want anyone telling them what they can own. Some were preppers. Some were just libertine. Murray embraces the Madisonian idea that in order for the Constitution to work, the people must be moral and ideally religious. He’s on to something here, but one can have a moral code without religion. This is something that many struggle with.