Finding job satisfaction while unemployed

 Dear Senator;

I'm sorry you lost your job responsibilities. But you allowed it to happen. First you said nothing while DOGE fired hundreds of government employees. Now that the government is unfunded, the president is firing even more. You abandoned your right to control the purse strings. It's no wonder the Democrats haven't budged on the shutdown: they can't be certain that the money they voted to spend will actually be spent. Firing employees saves money, but it also keeps government services from being provided. Citizens suffer when governments stop providing services.

You currently control both houses of congress as well as the executive branch. And you've wasted this opportunity by allowing the president to rule by his whims instead of by respecting constitutional norms. Since you have the power, why don't you use it instead of handing it over to the executive branch without a whimper of resistance? 

By doing nothing, what gets damaged? Only the very integrity and authority of the Constitution itself. Earlier in October, the president informed Congress that the United States is at war. Only Congress, not the president, has authority to declare a war, yet you've remained silent as Trump usurps your authority. Worse than silent, in fact. When Democrats put forth a measure to block the president from sinking boats in the Caribbean Sea, the Republicans blocked it. Rand Paul was one of the only two Republican senators supporting the measure. He wondered why we sank boats instead of intercepting them, “If anyone gave a you-know-what about justice, perhaps those in charge of deciding whom to kill might let us know their names, present proof of their guilt and show evidence of their crimes.”

You know even less than names and evidence. You only have the presidents statements that he's going after drug smuggling terrorists. The problem is Venezuela plays a minimal role as a source of smuggled drugs. So why is Trump really sinking Venezuelan boats? Some argue that the president is trying to unseat Nicolás Maduro from power. So why doesn't he say so? Moreover why can't you be bothered to find out what his illegally declared war is really about?

It's a shame that flights are cancelled and delayed because unpaid flight traffic controllers call in sick. You senators do the least you can to end the shutdown while continuing to draw your salaries. Perhaps you should be investigated for impersonating lawmakers.

Quiet quitters of Congress

 Dear Representative;

On three occasions this September, President Trump authorized the sinking of Venezuelan boats. No evidence of drug smuggling was provided. There were no survivors.  In years past we've arrested and prosecuted smugglers, not sunk their boats. Guilt is established in law courts, not by lynch mobs or presidents. Our government has never before behaved like this. America can't be great again by doing what it's never done before. Killing untried alleged foreign criminals is not justice. — It's an act of warfare. Only Congress has the authority to declare war, yet Trump has silently declared war just as you have remained silent instead of confronting him. An unauthorized act of war is essentially murder. By not restraining President Trump, Congress becomes accomplices to murder.

You've also authorized spending and then allowed Trump to withhold it. Only Congress can declare war. Only Congress controls the purse strings. Although you've taken an oath to uphold the Constitution, you've sat by idly when it was violated. Failing to uphold your oath demonstrates an absence of patriotism and a surfeit of self-serving greed. Don't allow your president to bend laws. Either step up or step down.   

The “radical left” left

When Charlie Kirk was killed in Utah, Donald Trump blamed it on the “radical left”. He blames the radical left for other things too.

During the week Kirk was killed I heard an episode of “Today Explained.” In this Episode, “Trump’s chief culture warrior”, Noel King interviewed Christopher Rufo author of the book, “America's Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything.”

Everything conquered, Wow! So just who is the radical left? In his interview, Rufo talked about the Smithsonian and other institutions. They have been, “totally captured by left winged ideologies.”

Trans-genderism is an ideology according to Rufo – I consider it more of an identity, but Rufo insists. Historically, native American groups acknowledged three to five sexual identities or roles. Rufo insists there are only two sexes. However, different cultures have different views of such things.

Rufo also insists that that there are agreed upon aesthetic standards and that polemical art fails to meet those standards. Todays museums are “curators of anti-cultural nihilism” instead of acceptable art. While some say art can be political or have subjective appeal, Rufo claims this is not the case. Adolf Hitler had personal standards for acceptable art and imposed them on his fellow Germans. Perhaps Rufo would also like to do this.

 In his book, Rufo claims that Herbert Marcuse promoted a plan for covertly indoctrinating the masses in socialist ideology. I was still in high school when Marcuse did this. That was more than five decades ago. I asked some lefties I know. Two had heard of Marcuse – none knew anything about him or his ideas. None had ever heard a college professor mention his name. However, the right leaning Cato institute mentions him in several of its articles. Apparently Cato considers his ideas a threat, or perhaps they’re enamored with his covert indoctrination plan.

I have a different theory. The radical left was a fringe movement during the 1960s and 1970s. They are no longer even that. No Democratic president since Lyndon Johnson has promoted policies to the left of his. In fact, Americans have been shifting to the right for half a century now. The radical left has left. They’ve marched off into a black hole. They’re so rare now that they can be considered cyrtids like Big Foot or Nessie. Some report seeing them, but there’s little proof that they actually exist.

Except in the minds of right-winged thinkers including Christopher Rufo and the Cato Institute.

 Most Americans support Social Security and Medicare, yet both have been linked to socialism. Neither Social Security or Medicare meet actual definitions of socialism yet that hasn’t stopped some from so maligning those programs. Similarly, not all on the left can be considered radical. Few, in fact, can be. Yet that doesn’t stop some voices from demonizing imaginary enemies. This does great harm because it stifles the free expression of different views and useful dialogues. When all must think the same and blame imaginary enemies, social progress ceases. Dirty tricks beget soiled and spoiled societies.

As long as we do politics by blaming instead of cooperating we progress toward an Orwellian society.