2025
Many of the issues identified in 2023 simply overwhelmed me. I couldn’t keep up with the anything, let alone everything. However, I continue to look for insights from our elders, deceased though they may be. The following quote is taken from Liberty and the News by Walter Lippmann.
“ I know of no man, even among those who devote all of their time to watching public affairs, who can even pretend to keep track, at the same time, of his city government, his state government, Congress, the departments, the industrial situation, and the rest of the world. What men who make the study of politics a vocation cannot do, the man who has an hour a day for newspapers and talk cannot possibly hope to do. He must seize catchwords and headlines or nothing.“
This quote is taken from a 1920 publication. I cannot imagine what Walter Lippman would say today with the internet and modern media “journalism. The press of 1920 was nothing to what exists today and yet Lippmann continued
“This vast elaboration of the subject matter of politics is the root of the whole problem. News comes from a distance; it comes helter-skelter, in inconceivable confusion; it deals with matters that are not easily understood; it arrives and is assimilated by busy and tired people who must take what is given to them. Any lawyer with a sense of evidence knows how unreliable such information must necessarily be.”
Today’s news and opinions does come “helter-skelter” from so many directions that even continuous monitoring of the news provides no information that a citizen can use to form “informed views”. The only possible response by citizens is to filter out opposing views and embrace the opinions of the most published commentators. In truth this is nothing but propaganda for each faction that controls some form of modern media. The result is a society of sheep following their emotionally-favored shepherd.
2023
Of the many issues that affect us as U.S. citizens, the most challenging revolve around one question: how effective is the structure of this democratic republic for citizen participation in governance? I have become more concerned about this problem during the last 20 years. Elected officials are not qualified to be effective legislators at the state and federal level. They cannot define policy that inspires citizens to work together for the common good at the local, state, or federal level. Why? Because these elected bureaucrats cannot work together on anything except getting reelected.
The time has come to mobilize the citizens of this nation to play less and participate in governing more.
Although no one reads this blog, I will use it to think out loud and communicate my efforts to participate in governing at the state and federal level. I have shared some of my thoughts and efforts in posts available on the front page. On the Federal page and the California page I will provide information on specific issues I’m working on, but I will also use the usual posts on the front page to detail specific communications to state and federal officials on particular problems.
At this time, I am very concerned about the following issues at the Federal level.
- The FY2024 federal budget and appropriations process. The reliance on the Ombudsman approach needs to end now. As I work through a number of documents and track the Appropriations Committees in the House and Senate, I will post important information on the Federal page of this blog. If necessary, new pages will be linked to the Federal page.
- The research agenda of the National Science Foundation has been diverted from science research to social policy implementation. Significant funds are being used to socially structure the Diversity Agenda into the scientific community. The NSF needs to focus on innovative scientific research.
- Global economic war has been waged for so long that nobody questions its existence; however, I do question it and I will challenge it. This includes the mess that involves the defense of Ukraine. It also involves the militarization of Ukraine using U.S. weapons.
Joe Allen 