Political Opinions and assholes, everyone has them

I get a lot of crap from people who think I am far left or far right and whose political opinions are based almost entirely on propaganda. I have developed my political ideology over time and based entirely on reading all opinions about a position as well as factual research materials (really hard to find).

Most of my political opinions are based on the basic economic fact that demand creates a supply. There is a demand for a cure for cancer so you can buy one, there is a supply. There is a demand for prostitution so there is a supply. There is a demand for recreational drugs so there is a supply. There is a demand for firearms so there is a supply. There is even a demand for shit and there is not enough supply. Really.

Once a person accepts the basic economic fact that as long as there is a demand a supply will exist making decisions on a lot of political issues is pretty easy. I can either try and force people to accept my opinion that recreational drugs and prostitution are bad OR I can legalize, regulate and tax these markets. One decision creates a dangerous and unregulated black market that costs society a tremendous amount of money. One decision creates a reasonably safe and effectively regulated market which creates tax income for society.

Now that seems like a brain dead decision to me. Unfortunately not everyone agrees with me. Many people feel it is necessary to force people to abide by their opinions of morality, public health and safety.

Democrats want to ban guns which will create a dangerous black market in guns. When the British outlawed guns in Palestine the Jewish people built clandestine firearms factories. One of the most famous was under a laundry. Banning guns does not work.

Recreational drugs and prostitution have the same issues. For years we have fought a war on drugs that has cost the United States in lives, medical costs, enforcement costs, imprisonment costs. If recreational drugs and prostitution were handled the same way alcohol and gambling are handled the country would be in much better shape financially, increased jobs, reduced costs and increased tax revenue.

So:

Yes to the 2^nd amendment.

Yes to choice in womens reproductive rights.

Yes to legalization, regulation and taxation of prostitution.

Yes to legalization, regulation and taxation of recreational drugs.

Yes to legalization, regulation and taxation of gambling.

Yes to legalization, regulation and taxation of anything else people want and I or someone else doesn't think they should have.

Health Care:

Health care is a different mess. I can buy an individual plan for about $400 a month. Spending on Medicare runs about $7,000.00 per person. So for $7K per year we could pay $550.00 per month per person on commercial medical insurance and lose all the hassles with who accepts medicare and guess what? That includes prescription coverage.

So here is my opinion. We, as a democratic government, need to put together a required benefit package for health insurance. Then we negotiate with non-profit health care companies for a rate and control that rate the same way we do rates for utilities, through a state or county consumer service committee. Finally we require employers to pay for the employees plan. When a person is unemployed the government pays for the plan. If a person is part time the employer still pays for the medical insurance. Period. If a person is an independent contractor the employer pays for the insurance. Period. None of these “independent contractor” loopholes that screw people, doctors and hospitals while giving employers enough money to buy a hummer and a vacation place in Costa Rica.

Dump medicare and medicaid.

Social Security:

Social Security is a scam. Every employee in the United States needs a retirement plan. Roosevelt sponsored Social Security to bust the momentum the Union was building. The three primary issues unions addressed were working hours, medical benefits and retirement benefits. By passing legislation that addressed working hours Congress pulled one leg out of the Unionization movement. By creating Social Security Congress pulled another leg out from under the Unionization movement.

All money put into the social security fund should be invested in real, safe investments that do not drive up the United States national debt.

Housing and mortgage regulation:

This is a big issue. A lot of our mortgage rules are fine. The FHA is a good system, provided appraisals are honest.

I believe all housing appraisers should be federal government employees. This eliminates the pressure on appraisers to increase the appraisal value to make sure they have a job tomorrow.

What people don't get is that the real problem with the mortgage crisis is that housing appraisals were inflated and that caused the bubble. Those appraisals were done locally by one of our neighbors.

Copyright Law:

Is crap. Copyright should be 20 years, same as patents. Period.

Free speech should always trump copyright, unless there is a profit involved on the part of whoever is accused of breaking copyright law.

Religion:

The United States guarantees Freedom of Religion, Not Freedom from Religion.

Regions are going to have religious predominance. Display of a religious symbol does not mean support for that religion. If it did we would have to outlaw the wearing of crosses. In fact by outlawing the display of religious iconography we trample on freedom of speech. The only time the display of religious iconography should be interfered with is if it is associated with actual discrimination.

Sure, discrimination can be hard to prove. Bureaucrats in the United States are often corrupt, breaking the law based on their individual bigotries based on skin color, religion, dress, or any other reason people feel justifies their ignoring the law and making up their own rules. A corrupt court clerk in Oakland country once told me “We make the rules!”. Courts do not make rules, but, she did and she screwed me over pretty well. No recourse without access to legal aid willing to address the issue and what lawyer wants to go to bat against a court for some Joe Schmoe?

Bureaucratic Bigotry and Discrimination:

We need something like the Inspector General to investigate every complaint about Bureaucratic corruption. Everything bureaucrats do should be recorded, the way police officers have dash cams these days. Phone conversations, even conversations across the counter. If a complaint is made the IG can investigate by reviewing the recording. The recordings and investigation process should be made publicly available on line. Open Government.

Obama illegally fired an Inspector General. That is corruption. No one cared and Obama was not even repentant about it. This kind of government corruption needs to be held to account.

Court System:

Lady Justice is depicted as blind, but, lawyers and judges treat trials as if they are dramatic presentations and people are often convicted or released based on the charisma of their attorney.

We need to put the blind into justice. Testimony and cross examination should not be in front of a judge or jury which will decide the case. Once testimony has been established and any motions or appeals about the testimony and presentation of evidence have been decided the Jury should review the testimony. In fact, even the name of the accused should be redacted for the decision making process. Justice should be as blind to anything but the established facts and allowed testimony as is possible.

Supreme Court Judges:

Need to have passed the bar. It should be a law.

Welfare:

People are our most important resource. We need to care for our national human resources as if they are our most important resource. We need to maintain people who are not capable of maintaining themselves for whatever reason, disability, retirement, unemployment.

Education:

Every person capable of being accepted at a State University should have their education paid for. We need some kind of standardized testing. People who graduate high school should be able to pass a GED. People who graduate from a class should be able to pass the CLEP exam for that class. Yeah, I know a small number of people do badly on tests even if they are literate and know the material. They freeze. Heck, everyone goes brain dead and can't remember things sometimes. I get that. That doesn't mean we should keep passing illiterate, uneducated students out into the business world.

Education should begin at age 3, during formative years. We need to use vouchers to create competitive education systems that address the bureaucratic stagnation currently so common in our education system.

I feel strongly about all of these issues. I have researched them and believe I have educated opinions founded in logic.

A doctor of clinical psychology once told me that it was okay for Harry Potter books, which popularize the Wican Religion (not very specifically) are okay but Christian fiction was bad because as a culture we consider magic to be fantasy.

Yeah, not buying that logic. Just because a religious viewpoint is in the minority and the majority think it is horsecrap does not make it less valid in my opinion. It is just this kind of “popular” logic that dismisses people and encourages bigotry.