Our Problems

If you are a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, then I think it is obligatory to bite the bullet, as it were, in that you made an election to a polity, and the idea that one can take one’s ball and leave if the game is not going your way is the kind of juvenile thinking that produces dismissal of millennials as callow.

Having said that, attempts at ridiculing those who are committed to reversing the decay that has resulted in the sorry parade of establishment hacks that now passes for the Democratic Party will serve little purpose save to fan the flames that should consume those intent on coronation. Old sour-pusses decrying as anathema the progeny of a pied piper intoning a tune perhaps forgotten by too many.

Their candidate is NOT as important as their children, our children, for children are always tomorrow, while the candidate will at some point be swallowed up like Ozymandias. So many were heard to snicker at Corey Booker’s comments as he appeared so oblivious to the fact that everything he decried was in fact nested so very close…Screen Shot 2016-07-26 at 9.21.56 AM

Poor grace is a sorry example to offer the tantrumming youth of how to share power. The Old Guard wants to celebrate their victory by eating their offspring. The Romans, ever an example to our propounding pops, would only inquire, being invited to the circus, “Where’s the bread”? The convention has become circus, as opposed to a place of business. It might serve the needs of Republicans, but it has become incredibly tedious for the rational.

Yes, I AM an old fart, and yes, millennials DO give me heartburn. But I know we need these people to turn the corner, and holding a coronation when 40% of your delegates would like nothing more than to burn your candidate at the stake is perhaps not the best way to proceed. Yes, some might think it “thoughtful” that a herring was tossed to the barkers from time to time (Diane Russell was magnificent, and Michelle, Elizabeth and Bernie had great speeches) but one could barely kindle a “unity” spark when someone stepped up to remind one and all that this was not about policy, it was a coronation.

Maybe it was as simple as forgetting that the nomination had yet to take place. Maybe it was the unaddressed hubris of those who, albeit without Debbie, continued to continue. So while I am going to urge Dem delegates to stay the course, I also want to suggest that Dems should start looking to primary a standing President in 2020. Hopefully, thanks to Senator Sanders, the party, as in Alaska, is changing course. There are many who have no problem with leaving behind those, enamored of neoliberalism, who choose to abandon ship.

HillHooey, and Not Innovative at That

Having seen the fanfare, perhaps it’s best if we have a look at under the hood at what little Clinton has actually published regarding her latest “bold” attempt to “help” the college student. For example:

A smaller proportion of millennials today are starting new ventures as compared to their predecessors.[12] This is not for a lack of desire—more than half of America’s millennials say they want to start a business—but barriers like student debt and a lack of access to credit are holding young people back.[13] Hillary is committed to breaking down barriers and leveling the playing field for entrepreneurs and innovators who are launching their own start-ups. Hillary will allow entrepreneurs to put their federal student loans into a special status while they get their new ventures off the ground. For millions of young Americans, this would mean deferment from having to make any payments on their student loans for up to three years—zero interest and zero principal—as they work through the critical start-up phase of new enterprises. Hillary will explore a similar deferment incentive not just to founders of enterprises, but to early joiners – such as the first 10 or 20 employees. Additionally, for young innovators who decide to launch either new businesses that operate in distressed communities, or social enterprises that provide measurable social impact and benefit, she will offer forgiveness of up to $17,500 of their student loans after five years. https://www.hillaryclinton.com/briefing/factsheets/2016/06/27/hillary-clintons-initiative-on-technology-innovation/

In fact, most federal student borrowers are already eligible for income based payments, minimal payments are always preferable collection-wise to deferment, and the plan is for a deferment of payment, not a suspension of accrual of interest. Moreover, such a plan does nothing to assist in capitalizing any business, especially as the loans render the borrower (and likely his family) unable to borrow any further funding.

Can I run a lemonade stand and get a 1/10 of the cost of my Bachelor’s degree forgiven? That would be a great question, but you won’t find any answers from the candidate, because the whole scheme is largely just lemon meringue pie (I won’t say “in the sky” because there is nothing really grand or elevating about the comments).

I think most “innovative” and “entrepreneurial” business initiative is simply cannibalistic, as I suggest above, much like the finance sector really does NOT increase our domestic production. The mass of Americans can’t do Algebra, their core problem being the inability moldy-peachesto understand use of symbols, which would likewise preclude them from becoming effective programmers. We don’t need high tech jobs… we need jobs sweeping streets, and growing food. We need more doctors and engineers. We need more manufacturing jobs.

We are well on our way to the future that H. G. Wells described.  Fruit, anyone?