Was everyday life simpler Mr. Washington when you took office in the 18th Century? Plumbing was certainly simpler because there wasn't any--though chamber pots under the bed and a trip through snow or rain to the outhouse might have seemed complicated.
But here in the 21st Century there seems to be a surplus of stuff 'we-the-people' really don't need making aspects of daily life more cumbersome than convenient.
Though I'm not about to give up my indoor plumbing the technology that harnessed electricity--seems to have compelled certain compulsive people to sit up nights to create more and more--for its own sake. We can't live without toilet paper, but we can certainly live without Alexa or Siri--and likely should for our own personal private security...
*STREAMLINE: If it's a truism that "less is more" then let us examine the proposed additional staff of 86,000+ IRS employees. [Though, from where these additional people will be sourced is a puzzle since employers everywhere across this nation are short staffed and 'Now Hiring'.]
In 1913 the U.S. Federal Tax Code pamphlet was 4 pages! Count on one hand with a digit left over! Those four pages included forms and instructions! [Sometimes I really hate where my research takes me...] Okay, I'm calmer...
One hundred years later, the U.S. Tax Code is 6,871 pages 'not' including 'any' forms or instructions! [Back to being tense.] Adding the Tax Regulations and Official Tax Guidance the entire U.S. Tax Code publication is just under 75,000 pages. [Tolstoy's "War and Peace" said more with less.]
Presently our taxing structure is a patched arrangement of 70s & 80s & 90s programing, software and hardware. [The Smithsonian Museum's income tracking technology is more UpToDate!] A flat tax rate - with no loopholes - paired to a replaced computer network will support efforts by the present staff [of 93,000+] to solve their back log then keep pace with future deadlines, scams and identity issues. [Jan 20, 2021 Blog: INFRASTRUCTURE IN AMERICA]
*PURPOSE: Historically, NASA has never been on time nor on budget. That aside--with a planted flag and bragging rights what did landing on the moon offer Earthlings in the way of progress for their civilization? In fairness, many NASA research spinoffs found their way into mainstream commercial products and applications. Some made their way to store shelves because they were rejected by NASA as not viable under space conditions. Regardless, some medical advances/devices, technological advances and lifestyle advances came our way. NASA spinoff technologies - Wikipedia
However--were those advances worth the millions [now billions] in research and development cost overruns? Could private industry have ultimately made the same discoveries for less? The Mars Rover program $1.08 Billion, the WEB telescope at 1.04 Billion, the Artemis program 93 Billion [estimate]. Could some of that money have been used to develop better recycling breakthroughs for plastics, toxins and other trash in landfills and our ocean? Further NASA isn't tasked with reusing or recycling. Every rocket has been a one-off. NASA began to make salvage strides with the Space Shuttle program that returned 133 of its 135 missions safely--but ceased in 2011.
And--unless the [environmental] plan is to make Planet Mars our landfill for the tons and tons and tons of accumulating and future toxins from batteries, solar panel parts and wind turbine blades--WHY--are we spending precious resources and billions [$$] more on Mars? Ahhh, wait there's more. We have an even greater paradox for our Climate Czar/John Kerry, for Green Peace, Siera Club & the Paris Climate Accord... I don't hear anyone speaking up about the malicious toxins emitted with literally every-single-rocket-launch by NASA and Musk/STARSHIP and Bezos/BLUE ORIGIN.
IF every adult human and every chimpanzee drove a diesel guzzling Hummer back and forth down every California freeway for a year the damage to our air/ozone still wouldn't compare to the Tourist-Space-Program, the Mars-Space-Program or the Moon-Space Program or satellite space programs. NASA has no [disclosed] study on the climate impact of rocket engine emissions, but Carbon Dioxide, Nitrous Oxide, Acidic Water, Black Carbon and Aluminum Particles are all discharged by solid rocket booster motors. Bezos' VSS Unity Rocket used a hybrid mix of solid and liquid propellants while Space X Falcon used liquid oxygen and rocket-grade kerosene. Both fuel sources emit 4 to 10 times EPA accepted Nitrogen Oxide levels. And--Starship flights emit 2,683 Tonnes of CO2 plus 1.7 Tonnes of nitrous oxide. Nitrous Oxide is 298 times more harmful than CO2...
Did Mr. Kerry--our Climate Czar with his BA in English--miss the nitrous oxide chapter on hazardous greenhouse gases? Further, [hypocritically] while Kerry travels extensively around the Globe via private jet [still holding major amounts of oil & gas stocks] little is known about his off-the-books appointment. His position is called a black-box. Someone who is Black Box is considered a Mission Critical Expert. Heaven help the environment of our planet from 'experts' like John Kerry and Al Gore. Many--sober prayers--please.
If you're hyperventilating and need to find a brown bag, I totally understand...
*CAUSE-AND-EFFECT: Do career politicians have a short attention span? The only long-term planning I see in any political strategy is an individual politician's quest to remain in office. Other than that, the vast majority of 'their' planning is limited to slogans for the next reelection campaign and maligning the character of any competition. In other words, mostly short-term. But worse yet, do voters have an attention deficit?
Josh Sager in part wrote in his October 2014 feature titled "The Shockingly Short Political Memory of the American People" "The average American is categorically incapable of remembering political events that happened more than a few months in the past, never mind accurately assigning blame or credit to the politician involved. Unfortunately, this is extremely dangerous as it makes it virtually impossible to achieve democratic accountability at the polls. Crimes and triumphs from last year[s] are forgotten rather than used to make decisions. Americans tend to vote based on a snapshot of their circumstances at the time of the election and this problem has been worsened by the incompetence of the mainstream media." [Jan 15 2021 Blog: JOURNALISM IN AMERICA]
What individual politicians 'cause' has important social 'effects', especially when with arrogance they stubbornly 'refuse' to listen to their electorate--any electorate. Politicians continue to debate valid gun-safety, but voters know exactly what 'they' want to see changed and how. Politicians continue to intrude beyond any mandate into medical decisions. An inflation rate of 2% began to rise steadily from January 2021 to 9.1% in June 2022 [it was actually higher] because a major element in modern-day life [fossil fuels] continues to be vilified. And that same steady inflation rise gets amplified by supply chain shortages because steadily over the last 25 years lobby pressure steered misguided politicians to tolerate manufacturing profits and jobs [and taxes] relocated overseas and into the control of autocratic governments.
The quest for energy independence 'was' identified as a national security strategic goal of administrations before Regan. An increase in North American fossil fuel production [and reserves] was seen as a military advantage and benefit to the decades of OPEC oil pricing dominance that risked fuel and heating prices for American citizens volatile and vulnerable.
With that, in 2005 a Phase I pipeline proposal was made by Alberta based TransCanada Corporation then approved in 2007 by Canada's National Energy Board. [Canada, United States and Mexico make up one continent--so none of this early planning--post 9/11--happened in a vacuum.]
In 2008 ConocoPhilips acquired a 50% stake, and the United States Department of State under President George W. Bush issued a Presidential Permit authorizing the construction, maintenance and operation of facilities at the U.S. Canadian border. Phase II, operational since 2010 delivered Canadian crude oil to U.S. Midwest markets and Cushing, Oklahoma. Phase III opened January 2014 completing the pipeline path from Hardisty, Alberta to Nederland, Texas. Phase IV became temporarily delayed by President Obama as a classic political 'hot potato' after it attracted opposition and negative attention from environmentalists as part of the battle over climate change and fossil fuels. In January 2017 President Trump renewed the construction permit-that-met with renewed theater then was promptly revoked by President Biden, January 2021. [June 2021 Blog: FOSSIL FUELS IN AMERICA]
Because there's more to fossil fuels than combustible engines in vehicles--halting the fourth and last phase of Keystone along with slowing other petroleum production interrupted major manufacturing and supply chains right here. Everyday products [from medical equipment to disposable diapers] account for about 500,000 individual manufactured goods. The 'cause' of revoking Phase IV [and other permits] 'effected' not only prices at the gas pumps--but everything else----everything.
PROPAGANDA: If we tell a lie long enough, even we can begin to believe it and we can believe it so devoutly we might swear to it in a court of law. How amazing is that?
Included with the definition of propaganda are two other words I found both interesting and disturbing: a] misinformation and b] indoctrination. So, propaganda covers a wide area of puffery, but there's no way to justify either misinformation or indoctrination in a functioning democracy. Busy with our lives, Main Street America believed propaganda and indoctrination only happened in communist countries with a single state-run news source. [We bought into a slick Madison Avenue style marketing-message for generations.]
Regardless of what you think of Donald J. Trump--his stick-in-the-spokes of traditional politics and media reporting exposed a major amount of 'dirt' swept under the rug of polite political society for d-e-c-a-d-e-s. We-the-people just had no idea, because the rigged-game [against you and me on Main Street] was never openly discussed.
When Trump descended that New York escalator June 2016--he quite literally became a bull-in-a-political-china-shop [policies & statements] that made fixed members of both the Republican and Democratic Party panicky. Former FBI Director Comey--loyal only to his own interests--initially set out to cover-his-career-butt when he began to expose Democratic Campaign meddling. Comey swiftly reversed course after he realized that Trump didn't have--and would never have--anything to match the rooted DC political machine.
Make no mistake, the citizens who voted 'for' Trump knew exactly who and what he was--but what millions of Main Street citizens were 'actually-voting-for' was a long overdue shake up of DC. The Swamp is 300 years deep--with too many entrenched people who had [and still have] too much to lose with someone like Trump around.
We can call and write and speak up to our state governors and legislators to insist they force Federal Term Limits and Age Limits on this 2022 Mid-Term Ballot--using the same wording and the same ethical arguments that Congress used in 1951 to limit all Presidential Terms...
We're not stuck. The ratio of [legal] citizens over the age of 18 in the U.S. compared to state and federal legislators is 3,273 voters to one politician. Even though I haven't counted the 499,686 elected members of city councils, county officers or school boards [nationally]--Main Street still outnumbers politicians in elected office. They need us--we don't truly need [all] of them...
Sherry Todd-Beshore is an award-winning novelist and former journalist.
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