Personal

Looking out the window today, and that wind continues to whip around. And its not expected to break tomorrow either. Not only is windy, the mercury remains below normal. I would be heading up to the wilderness this evening, but not only would it be cold but with the dry grass and that wind I would worry about embers all evening catching the forest on fire. Yet, it so fustrating, as it’s either been very rainy or windy all spring.

That is what is in the news today, at least in the pages of the Gray Lady, the New York Times. Apparently, if we don’t like Trump the alternative is no better. A sign of the times.

The New York Times writes about how conservatives point out Hogg’s more outlandish views like a 100% tax on all wealth beyond $1 billion and his making the case that all drugs should be legal. But I’m more concerned about his radical left views on gun control and taking away people’s rights to keep and bear and arms. Gretchen Witmer, the other alternative put forward by the Gray Lady doesn’t seem much more attractive in my mind either.

But on the other hand, I don’t like Trump’s turn against science and reality. Things like climate change and international trade are a reality, economists and scientists have studied such things to death and it’s advisable not to turn on our backs on what the evidence says. I also don’t like the idea of slashing and burning of federal government – federal employees do a lot of important tasks and produce a lot of important data – even if maybe the defense and federal law enforcement agencies are bloated and are prosecuting too many people.

Indeed, after listening to the news last night I awoke to a dream that the FBI was knocking at my door. They wouldn’t tell me where they were taking me or why they were there, except to say you know. They said it was part of President’s enforcement targeted actions against his political opponents. You know the ones the federal government is upholding, further delegitimizing the federal government. I’ve always thought government workers, especially the police and military are held into much too high of esteem for their highly compensated and honored government positions, when there are many jobs in the private sector just as dangerous and difficult but without the Memorial Day Parades. I did not comply, I was put down by a government enforcer with a bullet to my heart by the brave government workers, as the news reported. “He was crazy, we are not guilty, it’s been going on for 10,000 years,” goes the Great Mandela.

Truth is I agree that there ought to be more balance in academia, but the way to do that is not to stop funding colleges. I was listening to Elza Klein’s interview of Tom Friedman last night and he was pointing out the absurdity of how Trump is approaching China. Cutting funds to research institutions and blocking innovation in solar and wind power in favor of old dirty coal and oil power plants is setting our country so far beyond, as the European Union and especially China invest in their educational institutions and advanced technology. The idea that society can move forward on dubious Artificial Intelligence powered by coal and people driving in dirty gasoline and diesel automobiles seems absurd when we know the realities of climate change, which certainly anybody who has ever gone outside knows.

I do think federal priorities should encourage more study in economics and business – along with hard sciences – it’s true the liberal social sciences have gotten a lot of intention, and too often researchers mix politics in what they do. Often scientists are compelled to speak out based on their results, when the truth is they should be focused on the research and not the politics. Bias is an enormous problem in academia and scientific research more generally – but if anything we need to attract more voices by funding a wide variety of topics and people with different perspectives rather then cutting funding.

That said, I am not very political at this point. Honestly, we all have to live through the Trump administration, to get all riled up about it just means we are double sufferers – both our angst over the policies and what it’s actually doing to our lives. I’d rather just say the course, focus on my life and my career, save and invest in hope of eventually owning my own land and that off-grid cabin. Living out in the country, having pigs, goats, or even cattle, and a burn barrel for trash isn’t a super controversial thing, especially in a true rural place in a non-woke state where people just let you live how you want to live and own whatever guns you want without asking government permission. I can’t change Washington, much less Albany or the Town of Bethlehem but I can change my own life, and I can choose to eventually move somewhere that suits my values with less governmental overreach, lower taxes and more freedom. But for now it’s off to work, make money and invest it to a better tomorrow.