Frank's Musings

When the U.S. republic was initially designed its Congress was split into two Houses for the purpose of balancing the immediate preoccupations of the public with keeping the republic true to the overriding goal of protecting its democratic government from domination by an autocrat or by special interests.  Since then, another factor whose importance was not anticipated by the founders of the Constitution has overtaken other determinants of representative democracy —the money needed by politicians to pursue political positions as careers.  

The search for financial support has made many congressmen, and particularly those in the House of Representatives, advocates of special interests.  Their original mission has been corrupted by the expense of winning their election every two years.   Not only has the cost of political campaigning grown far beyond the parameters of campaign finance at the end of the eighteenth century, but the importance of political party affiliation, its distillation into two predominant parties, and the close affiliation of the Congressional parties with that of the President, the head of the administrative branch, have made the legislative branch likely to serve other interests than the will of the public.

Among the ways that the HR may be restored to its original function under modern conditions are the following three changes:      

• Use modern communications technologies to enable direct democracy, without the need for elected representatives to legislate on behalf of the collective constituents.   
• Transform the legislative personnel for each geographic district into civil service staff who are professionally qualified to understand the various preoccupations of its constituents and to draft legislation for their consideration in electronic adoption polls.
• Redefine the House Representatives as managers of those professional district staffs, retaining their subjection to periodic elections by the public in each district, but financing their audited campaigns exclusively with public funds.

The Senate will be needed as currently structured to act as the arbiter of the legislation proposed by the HR and assure its conformance with the overriding political goals of the republic.

Of course, such reform of the Congress will never occur; but congressional candidates may incorporate some of its principles into their election campaigns.  For example, they may consult regularly with their constituents through interactive electronic means; they may also focus attention on the quality and impartiality of their and their opponents’ staffs; and they may advocate and vote for replacement of private election finance with public funding.

The Donald’s latest transparent unilateral tax revenue scheme (requiring no Congressional authorization) would affect virtually all imports and penalize all US consumers, rich and poor, including his own family. Nevertheless, it would constitute a more burdensome drain on lower- and middle-income budgets.

The President’s advisers are, no doubt, proud that they have found a way to disguise new funding for one of Trump’s self-glorifying monuments that doesn’t directly raise graduated income taxes. Not only does the White House believe that the MAGA Crowd will stupidly ignore the inequity of billing them disproportionately more in comparison to his wealthy friends.  They are convinced that feeding Trump’s ego will solve many others of their goals.  Moreover, they blindly accept Trump's contempt for anyone else's self-interests.

This is an anomaly of liberal democracy with a written, but debatable, Constitution that was not anticipated by the founders of our republic.  Their good intention to liberate themselves from monarchic autocracy ironically made us victims of economic abuse not seen since the gilded age.  

The agreement in principle reported between Iran and the U.S. constitutes an advance of both the Islamic regime and the Trump administration towards conventional international political behavior. In other words, both sides will have acknowledged that the law of nations only exists among countries that tacitly accept certain norms, such as keeping open straits like Hormuz and not resorting to punishing military attack when trying to modify each other’s policies.

International relations is not a zero-sum game. It is encouraging that someone seems to have convinced the negotiators of that.

Trump’s settlement of his billion-dollar suit for compensation from the I.R.S. for its release of supposedly confidential information on Trump tax returns shows how, in his view, government is all a game. He and his acting Attorney General have concocted a trade-off that withdraws his threat of an unlikely award of $10 billion to him in exchange for creation of a slush fund of “only” 20% of that amount to fund thank-you gifts for the insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol at his request on January 6th, 2021.

Rich American cuisine begins owing to immigration. The people who came from foreign lands because of low opportunity, repressive discrimination, adventurism, and even slavery have brought their eating styles with them.

My children’s ancestors continued to compose their meals of whatever they could afford that matched the selection they were used to. The items they ate became part of the local menu wherever they settled, if only by default.

Usually some of those dishes persist in the habits of subsequent generations.  Intermarriage between separate immigrant populations produced unique blended cuisines, like the Eastern European Catholic/Jewish meld which my close relatives share.  Among the foods placed on the dinner table were the following:

Polish dishes            

Kiszka

Czarnina

Pierogi

Head Cheese

Kolats

Kolacki

Golomki

Oplatki

Kapusta

Uzka

Jewish dishes

Latkas
Brisket
Hamen Taschen
Matzoh  brei
Chicken soup with matzoh balls
Challah

Blintzes

The USSC decision in Louisiana v. Callais essentially approves using political party preference as the determinant for shaping voting districts regardless of its impact on other criteria. In reality. there are many ways to slice up the relative interests of voters. These include geography, economic activity, religious adherence, educational level, country of origin, amount of wealth, size of taxes paid, etc., as well as race

Some media pundits have praised President Trump for the tenor of his White House comments following the lone gunman assault at the WHCD yesterday. Although the president did admirably fulfill his obligation to assuage Americans’ concerns about that most recent display of criminal violence against civil order, he was only performing an incidental portion of the duties with which he has twice been entrusted. Comforting a disturbed nation in a fatherly fashion, while essential, is really important for the Chief Executive only when the disturbing event occurred out of his control.

Presidents are primarily elected to promote and maintain the peaceful and prosperous condition of the nation’s citizens. Calming them in a time of concern is just a magic trick when the President himself is the cause of the troublesome event. The war with Iran, the draconian repression of immigration, the failed attempt to supplant higher income taxes with new tariffs on imported consumer goods, etc., are all harmful initiatives of the Trump administration and can’t be mollified by kind words from the President.