Daily Archives: January 15, 2021

Almost every clich of political theory has been used to describe the events of January 6 carnage, coup, even riot. But while Donald Trump may have incited the mob, the events at the United States Capitol were the unfortunate but logical conclusion of the way in which a dominant section of the Republican Party has articulated its political strategy over the last decade or more.

The swearing-in of Joe Biden as President on January 20 may, therefore, formally end the tenure of Donald Trump, but unless and until the Republican Party transforms itself, January 6 will be one more marker on the route of destructive politics that is dividing the US more strikingly than at any time since the American civil war.

In many ways, the events of January 6 could have been foretold when Trump and the core of his support base refused to accept that he had lost the presidential election. It was clear that Trump would not, to paraphrase Dylan Thomas, go gentle into the good night.

For most of his term, almost everyone who has observed Trump closely including many who have worked with him have been convinced that the incumbent in the Oval office is not entirely stable.

Almost a year ago, nearly 350 psychiatrists and other mental professionals petitioned to Congress that the Presidents mental health was rapidly deteriorating. At least two well-known psychiatrists from Yale and George Washington University stated that Trump appeared to be showing signs of delusion by doubling down on falsehoods and conspiracy theories. They concluded there was real potential that Trump could be ever more dangerous, a threat to the safety of our nation.

These delusions have only aggravated since the election, which Trump was convinced was stolen from him by fraud committed by the Democratic Party in collusion with local officials.

The dangerous politics of the Republican Party

However, the deeper cause that goes beyond the delusions of Trump lies within the Republican Party itself. While its core support is derived from an elite who are attracted to it on the basis of free market fundamentalism and what the writer-thinker Ayn Rand described as the virtue of selfishness (Rands The Fountainhead and its story of the architect Howard Roark is Trumps favourite novel), it needs a wider base to become electable.

In his review of Jacob S Hacker and Paul Piersons Let Them Eat Tweets: How the Right Rules in an Age of Extreme Inequality, Franklin Foer wrote in The New York Times: From their 19th-century inception, political parties of the right have faced an electoral disadvantage since, for the most part, they emerged as vessels for the wealthy, a definitionally small coterie. Their growth seemed further constrained by the fact that they could never match their opponents enticing promises of government largesse because their wealthy backers steadfastly refused to pay higher taxes

In order to become electable, the Republican Party has had to widen its constituency by adding toxic emotional content to its political ideology that has helped it to win the support of sections of the white working class.

It has done so by appealing to faith, patriotism, racial prejudice, and the so-called core American values and by exploiting the sense of victimhood of the white working class. While pre-Trump, much of the messaging was limited to dog whistling, the President was brazen in representing the Democratic Party as being against God and American values and freedoms (including the right to bear arms), and responsible for disenfranchising white voters by weakening voting laws and following pro immigration policies. Even the obvious need to wear masks during the Covid-19 pandemic was projected as an attempt by Democrats to undermine the fundamental rights of American citizens.

In the period after the election, Trump was publicly elusive, but was using the subterranean web and social media to mobilise his supporters to gather at the Capitol on the day Congress was to certify Joe Bidens election victory. His message was simple and direct: We will never give up, we will never concede You dont concede when theres theft involved. The former Mayor of New York and Trumps personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani added: Lets have trial by combat.

What followed at the US Capitol was a reflection of the delusional personality of Trump and the dangerous politics of the Republican Party, particularly aggrieved by losing both Senate seats from Georgia which was to a large extent due to an unprecedented mobilisation of black voters by Stacey Abrams, who almost single-handedly built a coalition of grassroots support for the Democratic Party in the state.

Capitol consequences, case for 25th Amendment

The short-term consequences of the events of January 6 are obvious. There is widespread outrage within most sections of public opinion, akin to a political catharsis. Internationally, US democracy is no longer the shining city on the hill.

But whether the outrage will be a moment of awakening, or epiphany as the Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi put it, remains to be seen. Much will depend on whether the Republican Party realises the limits of destructive Trumpism; there is some evidence in the distancing of key figures of the party from Trump and his follies.

As of now, for many, every one of the next 13 days that Trump has remaining in the Oval Office is a day too many; this is true for Americans as well as for the world. Trump is still in charge of the worlds largest nuclear arsenal, weapons that could destroy the planet as we know it several times over.

Therefore, there are serious moves to invoke the 25th Amendment. The Amendment, ratified in February 1967, deals with presidential disability and succession. While Section 3 of the 25th Amendment allows a President to declare his own inability (and has been invoked in the past during the Reagan and Bush eras), Section 4, which allows the Vice President and Cabinet to declare the Presidents inability, has never been invoked before. This is the critical section at issue today.

Under Section 4, if Vice President Mike Pence and the majority of the Trump Cabinet or another body approved by Congress give a written declaration to the President pro tempore of the Senate, Chuck Grassley, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, stating that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, Vice President Pence would assume power as the Acting President.

Thereafter, President Trump would have the right to challenge the decision through a written declaration stating that no inability exists. The Vice President and the majority of the Cabinet (or another body approved by Congress) would then have another four days to provide a second written declaration of the Presidents inability.

Within 21 days of this declaration, Congress would need to confirm the Presidents inability through a two-thirds vote of both Houses. However, this step would be unnecessary in Trumps case, because his term ends on January 20.

The American constitutional law scholar, Joel K Goldstein, has argued that while the 25th Amendment does not provide a definition of inability, legislative authorities indicate that Sections 3 and 4 of the Amendment refer to a wide range of physical and mental inabilities, which could be produced by attack, injury, illnessor could result from a degenerative process.

This definition could clearly encompass a range of possible psychological assessments of Trump. Moreover, as Goldstein points out, Section 4 applies both when a Presidential candidate refuses to recognise an inability, as well as when he is unable to do so. Thus, Trumps refusal to accept an assessment of his inability is irrelevant to an invocation of Section 4.

Going forward, India and post-Trump United States

Will the Trump Administrations perceived proximity to India cast a shadow on bilateral relations during the Biden-Harris era?

India-US relations have bipartisan support and a majority within the US Congress recognise the importance of India, given particularly the rise of a belligerent China. Nonetheless, it is critical for New Delhi to dispel the impression that it had a special relationship with the Trump Administration or that it would have been more comfortable with the re-election of a Republican President.

This demands also subtly tempering sections of the India diaspora who were enthusiastic Trump supporters, and reaching out to Democrats beyond key figures within the Biden-Harris administration. A willingness to engage with critics within the Democratic Party, and to be more open on sensitive issues could help to quickly ensure that the transition from Trump to Biden could be seamless at least for bilateral relations.

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An Expert Explains the US Capitol Hill riot: anatomy of an insurrection - The Indian Express

Mayor Mike Coffman talks with CBS Channel 4 News Denver reporter Shaun Boyd after his week posing as a homeless vet last week. SCREEN GRAB

Mayor Mike Coffman told a Denver TV reporter this week that people are deceiving themselves in thinking theyre doing the right thing when it comes to dealing with the regions homelessness problem.

He should heed his own advice.

Coffman fooled himself into thinking that by pretending to be homeless for a week he now has the answers to one of the regions most heartbreaking and complicated social problems.

If only it were that easy.

The Aurora mayor became the story this week after posing as a homeless veteran for seven days and hanging out in a few local encampments and shelters.

Becoming the story was clearly his intent. He invited an obliging Channel 4 TV News Reporter Shaun Boyd to exclusively relate his adventure.

This made-for-TV gambit resulted in hubbub over Coffman and Boyd perpetuating old chestnuts and tropes about the cause of homelessness and the mischaracterization of those who dont have a place to live.

Coffman said he pretended to be homeless to learn about whats driving the problem. Instead, he ended up being schooled by homeless advocates, mental health workers and some of his municipal peers about what a bad idea the pretense was.

I think he should issue a formal apology for it. Its completely unacceptable, said Englewood City Councilmember John Stone. He scolded Coffman during a virtual news conference Thursday, called by a consortium of area elected officials and homelessness experts. Stone said he was homeless between the ages of 16 and 21. I was homeless for five years. And Mayor Coffman believes that I am a hopeless case.

Stone was referring to Coffman telling Boyd that, after receiving his masters degree in homelessness last week at street school, he understands now that the regions homeless problem is a lifestyle choice and addiction quandary. Coffman tried backpedaling on the comments the next day on his Facebook page.

My intent was to (highlight) the difference between those staying in the shelters and those staying in the encampments, Coffman wrote.

He surmised that people who live outside choose to so they can do drugs, because drugs are against the rules in shelters. After talking with some urban people on the street who were homeless, he determined that the people living in camps prefer their life on drugs to having to get a job.

Boyd didnt offer any expert opinion during the exclusive segment, nor did she fact-check Coffman even once. The segment allowed him to toss out a veritable catalogue of debunked cliches about the causes, the conditions surrounding people who do not have homes.

He took his show on the road Saturday to FoxNews, where he told his story to an anchor there while B-roll ran from the Channel 4 segment and nobody questioned Coffmans private assertions.

Coffmans scheme was rife with red flags and problems from the beginning.

The mayor is not a journalist, but a journalist should have advised him about the ethical peril he invites by being dishonest about who he really is. Professional journalists embed themselves, but they never lie.

Coffman was also quickly and rightfully called out for passing off a week sleeping away from home as anything close to not being able to call for an Uber to get whisked back to reality if his charade went south or just got tiresome.

Many of the storys critics were incensed by Coffman telling Boyd that he wanted to get information for himself, outside of those with an agenda.

Over many years, Ive talked to and at one point worked alongside advocates in the trenches. I cannot even fathom what kind of nefarious agenda Coffman thinks this army of endlessly heroic do-gooders have. Boyd didnt ask.

Really, homeless advocates dont want people camping in parks and public spaces. Nobody does. They dont see a healthy supply of visibly homeless people as job security nor a financial ticket to the good life.

These patron saints see an endlessly complicated problem that, in the end, results in people living stressful, dangerous and often wretched lives, unable to find a way out of their quagmire.

Visible homeless people are now all over the region.Theyre next to Home Depot in Golden. Theyre behind Lamars Donuts in Broomfield. They are all camped across the metro area, trying to stay alive.

While addiction and homelessness on the street often go hand in hand, there are plenty of addicts with homes and even more people without homes and no addictions. Substance abuse may appear to the untrained as a desire and choice. Of those Ive known, who were addicted to heroin, opioids, alcohol or meth, not one wanted their addiction. Not one. Ever.

For each of them, their addiction was their cruel and relentless master. Heroin and meth dont care that you sleep on a sidewalk.

Coffmans other awakening came from determining that most homeless people arent from here. You dont have to hang out in homeless camps to know that most people everywhere in the metro area arent from here any more. Real experts could set him straight in understanding the problem of homeless is statewide. There are indeed plenty of native homeless people in Colorado.

Coffman and Boyd together virtually ticked off a catalogue of cliches and myths that homeless advocates have worked so hard to debunk.

Asked by Boyd what advice Coffman has regarding panhandlers and do-gooders, Coffman advised not to give them food or money because it only perpetuates the problem.

That fable is common among some people who confuse the erroneous concept of tough love with discipline and accountability.

Successful homeless recovery programs like Bridge House in Boulder and its Aurora counterpart, Ready to Work, work well because they integrate accountability and opportunity.

The debunked tough love fantasy dont feed them is a strategy to control feral cats.

Homeless people are not feral cats. The idea that free food only encourages homeless people to not get jobs is nothing but the fiction Ayn Rand got rich from.

The problem with not feeding the hungry is that they starve. Then, you have starving homeless people and an even more serious problem.

Finally, Coffman said hes hopeful because, out of the blue Denver Mayor Michael Hancock rang him and said he wants to look at a regional solution to the endless problem of homelessness.

Thats nice.

Hancock helped make the problem of camping homelessness a regional problem with camping bans and sweeps that pushed people down the Platte River and up Cherry, Clear, Sand and Ralston creeks years ago.

My entire life Ive heard Hancock and other metro officials call for a metrowide approach to addressing the problem of homelessness.

Hancock and others see sharing the pain of the symptoms of homelessness as the answer, rather than finding ways to treat the problems that cause it.

Well get there, but we need real expertise, real conviction and real resources. What we dont need are boneheaded publicity stunts like this.

Follow @EditorDavePerry on Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or [emailprotected]

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PERRY: Mayor Coffman's mock-homeless close-up highlights the danger of unreality TV - Sentinel Colorado

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Good things happen when people work. Honest effort lifts the soul, like medicine for the body, making a vocation much more than a paycheck.

Work produces income, which covers rent and keeps families fed. But at a more fundamental level, work produces feelings of worth. Goal setters in pursuit of happiness for the New Year and beyond cannot overlook the link.

The influence of work on a persons psyche is one reason that forced labor is so abhorrent. Most people recognize the immorality of slavery in all its forms. Covid-19 has uncovered the harm that comes from the opposite: Forced closure of a business or forced unemployment.

Telling individuals they cannot work is just as dehumanizing as telling them they must work. More than just their survival is at stake when this happens. Their meaning is at stake. Nutritionists say, You are what you eat. But a more accurate slogan would be: You are what you do.

Normally no one stands in the way of a persons right to decide when, where and how to work. But the pandemic has shaken things up. For the sake of public safety, government officials have divided work into two categories: Essential and nonessential.

Some people have received permission to continue working while others have received fines or even arrest. Putting first responders and medical workers in a special category makes sense during a health emergency, but other exemptions have been more dubious.

Examples include executive orders favoring Big Box retail over mom-and-pop shops, strip clubs over churches and daycares over schools. California officials even authorized an outdoor catered film shoot while shutting down outdoor restaurant dining in the same parking lot.

Regardless of the justifications, telling anyone that their lifes work does not matter or ranks below someone elses vocation can lead to despair. Television host Mike Rowe, famous for his Dirty Jobs series on the Discovery Channel, describes the risks in a recent Facebook post. Predictably, mental health cases have spiked along with Covid-19 cases.

Even before the pandemic, society has elevated some pursuits over others based on arbitrary or misguided distinctions. People assume, for example, that the noblest and most rewarding work prioritizes others over self, family over career, and corporate social responsibility over core business activity. As I explain in previous columns on selfishness, work-life balance and philanthropy, all of these dichotomies are false.

Another damaging dichotomy is the forced choice between making a social contribution or making money. People who buy into this construct see a necessary tradeoff between doing good and doing well. In their minds a person can have purpose without profit or profit without purposebut not bothas if more of one means less of the other.

My late mentor, Philadelphia Flyers founder Ed Snider, rejected this idea. He saw purpose and profit working together. Money should be the reward, but not the reason, he said, talking about his motivation to stay active. You do it because you enjoy it. You enjoy creating things, building things, and making things better. And the money follows as a reward.

Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham agrees. Business critics sometimes think the only way to become a billionaire is to exploit others, but Grahams experience as a venture capitalist has taught him the opposite. Entrepreneurs have the greatest likelihood to shake up an industry when they identify novel solutions to problems that are personally meaningful.

RAJSHREE AGARWAL

True success requires purpose and profit. People can track their progress in these areas on independent, parallel axes. But the interplay between the two dimensions is easier to visualize in a grid with intersecting lines. The upper-right quadrant, where purpose and profit meet, is the sweet spot for happiness. As philosopher Ayn Rand explains, happiness is the state of consciousness resulting from the achievement of ones values. This is where Snider found himself when he hoisted the Stanley Cup with his championship National Hockey League franchise.

Zappos founder Tony Tsieh went the other direction after achieving financial success, descending to the lower-left quadrant of the grid prior to his fire-related death in November 2020. Paying his Park City Crew to follow him from Las Vegas to the Utah ski resort town, Tsieh indulged in a hedonist lifestyle with no purpose or profitusing previously earned money to bankroll excessive and endless parties. Without honest work, the mantra to be happy became whim-worship, fueling paranoia and depression in a drug-induced mindlessness that ultimately resulted in self-destruction.

People stuck in the lower-right quadrant at least produce value. They are not criminals or parasites who live at the expense of others. They earn their place in society and receive compensation. But they fail to serve their own values, perhaps never having defined them in the first place. In many cases they mistakenly pursue profit as the end goal. They fail to understand that money is a tool to serve ones values, but it cannot substitute for them. Wealth and status in other peoples eyes cannot fill the emptiness that such people perceive when looking in a mirror.

People in the upper-left quadrant make the opposite mistake. They see profit as exploitative or mistakenly assume that self-interest is immoral. Either way, they follow their values without regard to practical concerns like payroll and rent. They may achieve their purpose to some extent, but they fall short of their full potential because they fail to understand the trader principle. To scale up innovation and make it sustainable, people must leverage the power of enterprise and markets. This requires profit, the currency that brings people together to collaborate.

Goal setters looking for happiness in 2021 must work to maximize purpose and profit. The following four principles provide guidance.

Work Is Essential

Nothing worthwhile comes without work. Nature demands it, not only to provide daily sustenance, but also to feed the soul. Some physical comforts seem automatic in free societies, where innovation, specialization and trade enhance productivity. But no one can escape the basic law of economics: Before goods and services can be consumed, they must be produced.

Even if someone inherits wealth or depends on others for food and shelter, they cannot escape the necessity of work for mental well-being. Meaningful work allows people to combine their abilities and aspirations for true success, so they can say: I love what I do and I am good at it. Honest effort in any environment leads to fulfillment.

Work Is Personal

Simply deciding to stay productive is not enough. People must choose among many options to find a vocation that is personally meaningful. As a first-order principle, they must work at identifying their purpose and the accompanying hierarchy of values that comes with it.

What work is essential cannot be left for others to dictate. The crowd is never satisfied anyway. Some critics demand wealth and status as signs of worth, while others demand self-sacrifice and poverty as signs of nobility. Each individual must tune out the voices and think independently. The correct answer might involve working at an orphanage, on Wall Street or at home.

Likewise, each individual must make personal choices about profit, spending it to promote their values. They cannot let others dictate how they earn income or spend it. Both actions are expressions of self.

Work Is Challenging

Staying the course to achieve purpose and profit requires careful goal setting. Research from U.S. psychologist Edwin Locke shows that the best way to feel motivated is to push yourself to do things that you are not certain you can achieve.

Simply identifying stretch goals and making plans to execute them takes effort. Success often requires investment in developing new skills and competencies, which requires pacing and sequencing of tasks. Success also requires anticipation of tradeoffs. Once implementation begins, people must take care to not give up higher values for lower values.

The entire process takes effort. Work is hard, and so is thinking about work. Rather than diving in like a daredevil, people who find purpose and profit usually take a scientific approach. They reflect, plan and then act.

Work is Win-Win

Despite the need for self-reflection, meaningful work does not have to be a lonely endeavor. Once individuals define their personal values, they can embark on a quest to find kindred spiritscolleagues who complement their abilities and match their values to work toward common goals. Win-win relationships result.

The benefits multiply when allies are kind instead of nice. Rather than worrying about hurt feelings, they speak hard truths and keep each other honest. The feedback helps individuals identify holes in their value hierarchy, fostering growth and development. This helps the journey become the destination.

Happiness is hard work, and those who achieve it earn their just rewards. Instead of picking purpose or profit, they choose both. Ultimately, they make no apologies for their success because in their own eyes, they know they are worth it.

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The Meaning Of Work For A Happy Life (And New Year) - Forbes