Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

Today was the signing ceremony for the Asian Infrastructure Bank. China is seeking to compete with the World Bank and/or IMF to gain some real muscle in the world of international finance. I say welcome to the party and obviously a brilliant move for China.

USA and Japan (and not too many others) are bummin' because there is the chance that the Chinese are watering down global finance opportunities rather than growing the pool, but I say so if the Chinese want to pump big bucks into trade infrastructure, that means more business for everyone, more world citizens are brought into the sphere of controlling their own lives, all for the good.

I grew up in a Libertarian household. I say that for two reasons: 1) I have never been a Democrat or a Republican (nor can I imagine any scenario in which I'd want either of those clown colleges representing me); 2) Its all about free markets, if its not about free markets then its more likely just politics as opposed to governance. And since I personally gravitate toward international affairs more than domestic ones and the Libertarian Party basically has no foreign policy, I was pretty much done as a Libertarian by the time I hit voting age. Realistically I am not now (nor have I ever been) politically a Libertarian. I never replaced the Libertarians with anything else, choosing instead to disdain all politics for being an unfortunate waste of time and energy.

I do not vote, don't feel the need to nor the desire. I don't like people that run for office, I could tolerate them but they have such a perverse need to loved and admired irrespective of their inconsistencies, insecurities and/or repulsive habits. And I don't really roll that way. I respect better than I love and I got no respect (or love for that matter) for the vast majority of politicians of my lifetime. I am told voting is my "duty" to which I ask: whose "duty" is it to give me something I want to vote for? Even duty needs a hint of reciprocity and the Democrats and Republicans have yet to offer any to me. I'm not a huge fan of democracy, I find it merely leads to elections. But democracy is what we got here in America and I can live with that, if anyone ever tried to take away my right to vote I would vote against it. But until then I don't see much I want to vote for. My life is just fine, I don't rely on gov't for livelihood or entertainment, not voting has yet to make a difference in my world because I don't make the assumption that the idiot that lost the election would really be better than the idiot that won.

I am generally a global optimist. I think everything is getting better all over the world. We live in a world suddenly bathed in sunlight. Some embrace it, some fear it. This period of history we currently inhabit is the early connected years: a clumsy mix of the people who love this shit and those that think this shit is an abomination (or at least an annoyance); in many place we see barriers coming down and in other places we see more barriers than ever. I don't believe the barriers will hold, I believe the people will make the most of each opportunity and gov't of the world will be powerless to stop it. The interconnectedness will be second hand to the next generation: even the most epochal civilization-warping inventions are just everyday objects to a baby and the kids that grow up with this processing power, this social reach, this astounding depth of knowledge available will expect it as an ordinary way of life and the only way for politicians to stop it is to get better at it.

Humanity is growing together on a global scale and that reach is still fairly new. I think it's a beautiful thing. Our art and our commerce will keep us healthy, happy and prosperous and the digitization will make so much available to so many people for such minimal investment. Humans learn from each other and we can learn faster and more completely than ever before.

There will be disagreements, there will be disputes, there will be egos with more power than they ought to have, there will be fights, there will be skirmishes, there will even be wars. There will be people who fail to succeed in even the most prosperous peace. But I am convinced the opportunity to live a better life will be available to steadily more people throughout my lifetime.

The first step for making the world a better place is developing trade infrastructure for more people in more places. The AIIB makes that possible. It'll open markets, create more consumers, bring more professional opportunities to more people and that should not worry the World Bank, IMF, USA or Japan. More money makes more customers, more stability, competition will make the World Bank better, competition indicates that the financial universe is growing. Some Americans bristle at the news of the AIIB but I think its good news, suggestive of greater (not lesser) stability.

Thoughts on the Confederate Flag

The Confederate Flag has suddenly risen to the level of high cultural impact, though it has been a standard, highly visible racist symbol for decades. Let me clarify: I don't believe the Confederate Flag is inherently racist or that people are necessarily racist for (let us say) approving of the flag. But long have we known that some Americans find it a statement of racism/hate/oppression/etc; and to carry on approving of the Flag after being informed that some folks have announced it racist, is by its very nature a racist choice. Thus, the Flag, while not inherently racist, is now (and has been) existentially racist. Flag's racist, dude, indeed by this point in our collective history, it serves little purpose other than being racist. It should be removed from polite society, absolutely.

I grew up in the South (well, Kentucky, the northiest part of the South) and have lived most of my life here but I have never needed the Confederate Flag. I watched Dukes of Hazzard as a youngster (not really my bag even then but it was the hip shit til Miami Vice came along), that's probably as close as the Confederate Flag ever touched my life. I have never been a fan of country music (and today's 'country' is the awfulest whitest sort of pop garbage, an absolute abomination to the spirit of Bach, Rachmaninoff, Lennon and/or McCartney). I was not a 'redneck' (a discernible sociological sub group around these parts) growing up nor at any point in my development. I did not fly the flag (or any flag) or wear it on my clothes or on my car or anywhere else a Flag might've could've gone. In short, I couldn't give an f' about the Flag and if it burns forever in our collective hellish past, that's fine with me.

But I'd like to separate myself from the current protestations in one way. Even more than being disrespectful to the African-American community, it is disrespectful to the Union. It is disrespectful to the United States of America itself and should've been banned 100 years ago. The Confederate Flag should never have been tolerated our society. All Americans should be offended by the Flag because it is an anti-American symbol! It should be treasonous to fly the flag because it is an exhortation of a violent separatist movement within our borders. The Flag is a symbol of the dissolution of the USA, we never tolerated al Qaeda doing that, don't see why we should let our own ignorant peckerwoods get away with it.

As for the Flag as a symbol of heritage, I'm not opposed to putting the Confederate Flag in a history museum. And if white Americans go to those museums to feel better about their whiteness, that'll be their choice though I hope (and assume) they'll find better ways to feel good about their heritage. A history museum I could live with but the Confederate Flag doesn't need to be anywhere else in our future.

A Supreme Court Suggestion

Traditionally USA has had nine justices on its Supreme Court. But as the population has risen that means the representation per citizen has vastly decreased. Why does it matter? Well, honestly it doesn't. Raising the number of justices to fifteen (which is what I'm about to propose) wouldn't make that much difference in terms of representation especially over the course of time that it would take to do it. The reason to increase the number of justices is to give a wider representation to our technological advances and our cultural evolution. Last season there were a coupla cases that showed how potentially out of touch the current justices are to the creeping digitization of our world. The need to expand the court is for technology and the changes that will bring in how the citizenry relates to each other and the state. 

How to expand the court? Here ya go: Congress could announce right now that every ten years for the next three decades, two more justices will be added. The growth should be staggered so that no single president gets more than two extra nominations. The time frame should be pushed far enough into the future that no one can predict who will be president at the time. 

So in 2025, the sitting president would get two extra Supreme Court nominations in addition to however many replacement nominations will be needed; then again in 2035 and 2045 which would bring the total number of justices to fifteen. Fifteen seems a reasonable number, though 30 years from now we may decide we could use more. The elections of 2024, 2032 and 2044 would have a bit of extra bite to them but everyone would know ahead of time what was at stake. 

First Post

I need to put up something to just see what this blog looks like. I'll add more useful stuff later. Now that I've seen it, I don't like it. Think I'll change it.