Adult diapers

It’s not exactly “filial obligation,” but in most economically developed countries, younger workers provide a retirement income for the elderly population.  Social security in the U.S., for example, is not something you  build up like your Individual Retirement Accounts.  The money I was paying into Social Security was used by my parents’ generation, and I’m now collecting from contributions from the younger workforce.

This system works as longer as a young workforce exists.  What happens if the number of old people keeps increasing, but new workers don’t show up because of demographic trends or automation?  

That is what is already happening in South Korea and Japan.  In Japan the sale of adult diapers now outpaces the sale of diapers for babies.  The population is shrinking.  The U.S. and China are not there yet, but they are approaching that point. 

I think it is wonderful that the increase in the world’s population has already slowed.  Just be prepared for some new problems we haven’t thought much about. 

Ginni Thomas and the "stolen election"

Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, told the Jan. 6 Committee that she believes the 2020 election was stolen.  At this point in time two types of people claim the election was stolen.  The first is people who are not very bright and willing to believe lies on Facebook or Fox News or from Donald Trump.

The second group knows damn well the election was fair and honest and knows that Biden won but is willing to claim the election was stolen to make political points, curry favor with Trump, or feed red meat to the not-very-bright “base.”  This second group is cynical and calculating.

I don’t believe that Ginni Thomas is stupid, although I might be wrong.

Why some Trumpists believe the election was stolen

In 1982 I was canvassing for Tom Bradley, former Los Angeles mayor and candidate for Governor of California.  My precinct was in downtown San José, a few blocks from San José State and just south of San José’s Japantown.  The precinct was amazingly diverse, even by California standards.

My next door neighbor was a middle-aged woman unsophisticated in politics but very enthusiastic for Bradley.  She volunteered to accompany me on the canvass, and she was good at it.  The day after the election, in which Bradley was defeated, she told me she thought the election was rigged.  She said, “Almost everyone we talked to was for Bradley.  How could he lose?”  She was taking one liberal precinct in one liberal city and extrapolating to the whole election.

Trump supporters do something similar.  They don’t speak to many people who oppose Trump.  They don’t read newspapers.  They watch only Fox News.  They go to rallies where thousands of fellow Trumpists shout out their support.  They don’t see many yard signs for Trump’s opponents, who also don’t fly flags from the back of pickups.  

How could he ever lose?  It must have been rigged.  

Rule of law?

Eighty percent of Republicans, according to a recent poll, said they believed in the rule of law.  I heard that on MSNBC, and the commentator seemed quite happy with that number.  

The problem is what do the other 20% believe?  Rule of force?  Rule by fiat?  I am also aware of something called “response set bias” where respondents reply to a poll question the way they think they should reply rather than saying what they believe.  

I think that 20% is much higher.  After all, eight Republican U.S. Senators and over 150 Republican House members voted against certifying Biden’s election.  Those are men and women who swore an oath to uphold the Constitution.

The official Space Force song

We’re the mighty watchful eye

Guardians beyond the blue

The invisible front line

Warfighters brave and true

Boldly reaching into space

There’s no limit to our sky

Standing guard both night and day

We’re the Space Force from on high

“Guardians of the Galaxy” comes to mind.  Are Groot and the raccoon part of the Force?  “Warfighters” is weird.  And “from on high”?  Will they be launching from the moon?  Can a “watchful eye” be mighty?  Sounds sneaky, maybe more like the CIA.  

Morality police

Thousands of people are demonstrating in Iran after a young woman was killed in the custody of the "Morality Police."  The young woman was not wearing the clothes prescribed by religious authorities.  In Iran the government is under the control of religious fanatics.

That sounds familiar.

The not-very-bright Justice Alito

The Sept. 22 issue of The New York Review of Books features an article by constitutional law professor Laurence H. Tribe on the Dobbs decision permitting states to outlaw all abortions.  Tribe dismantles the Alito opinion, pointing out with precedents, analyses, and careful arguments why the decision is an ideological screed with no basis in law or previous decisions.

I have no idea why Tribe has not been nominated to sit on the Court.  He has been writing on legal issues for years, and he is always clear and concise.  He exposes people like Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh and Alito for the intellectual pygmies they are.