A Divided Government - the Norm Since 1969

It is not true that things have never been worse. It is true that during your lifetime politics have been more divided than it has during the lifetime of any previous generation of Americans. Divided government is now our norm and not an exception. None of us have lived during a time in which one party has been able to consistently pursue a coherent agenda over a decade, much less a lifetime.

The longest stretch during which any one party has had control of the House, Senate and White House since 1968 were the last 6 years of George W. Bush's presidency, when the country was drawn together after 9-11.

Janet Yellen - Still the Only Woman to Serve as the Federal Reserve Chair and a Living Argument For Considering Women in That Role More Than Once per Century

Only once in its 100+ year history have we let a woman head the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve Chair is responsible for monetary policy which has an influence over important things like inflation, job creation, and financial markets.

Trump - who loves women but just not THAT way - did not renew Obama's appointee Janet Yellen's time as Federal Reserve Chair. It's worth looking at how she did.

No Fed Chair presided over a period of lower inflation, the 1.4% inflation during her time at the Fed easily the lowest.

No Fed Chair who served a full 4-year term presided over a time of more rapid job creation.

Finally, the only Fed Chair under whom the S&P 500 did better was Volcker.

Given she did so well, the powers that be are toying with the idea of letting another woman take a shot at the job sometime during the next century. And then - who knows - if that woman does as well we may start appointing a couple of women per century - doubling their representation in this important role.

The Pursuit of Happiness - What the Founding Fathers Thought Was Reason Enough for a Revolution

Such a curious reason to declare independence. It's not a guarantee of or a promise of. Jefferson and rest left Britain simply to pursue happiness.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. ..."

Hard to tell whether to blame it on us or happiness, but one or both seem to move around a bit. We don't just sit in one place with happiness or it with us. Here's to continuing the pursuit.

Fun Stats About Independence from the British Empire to Impress Fellow Nerds at Your 4th of July Celebration

Here are some facts to share at your 4th of July celebration that will make everyone love you. (Or inspire them to declare independence from you and breakaway violently, almost like a spontaneous Revolutionary War reenactment. So, a win in either case).

When the US declared independence in 1776, its population was less than 3 million. It's now 333 million. No one talks about what a huge audience the BBC lost with the revolution. It's little wonder that the British sent an invasion in the 1960s with the Beatles, Kinks and Rolling Stones - an attempt to reclaim a lost audience. 333 million people is nearly 666 million ears.

Britain had 26 colonies in North America but it was just the 13 that declared independence in 1776 and broke away to eventually unite as states. (Leaving colonies like Jamaica and Nova Scotia to remain British.) I feel like their retention of 50% of their American colonies is a stat that too rarely gets acknowledged.

The next country to gain independence from Britain is one that the US has tried to occupy itself a couple of times since: Afghanistan in 1919.

The US was just the first of 63 countries to successfully declare their independence from Britain. Six others gained independence from evolution rather than revolution. Countries that chose evolution include Australia, Canada, and Ireland.

On average, all throughout the year another country celebrates its independence from Britain every 5 days. Imagine being King Charles and having to scurry around the globe every week to appear at yet another independence day celebration, putting on a brave face as you plead with former colonialists, "Please come back! We will love you better this time."

The combined population of the countries that will be celebrating an "independence from Britain!" day this year is 2.9 billion - about 44X the population of the UK.

Militias as a Means to Avoid the Cost of Standing Armies (or why the second amendment doesn't mean what the NRA wants you to believe it means)

The NRA has distorted the intention of the 2nd amendment and glosses over the historical realities and philosophies of the founding fathers. The 2nd amendment was never intended to give any random citizen unfettered access to any random number of any weaponry they fancied. It was written to describe how free people were to defend themselves without relying on standing armies.

Jefferson’s Republican Democratic Party (which was referred to at various points in the 1790s through 1830s as the Republican Party, Jeffersonian Republicans, Democratic-Republican Party or Democratic Party) thought that war and monarchy were intertwined. The taxes and spending needed to create a standing army led to huge riches for the monarch who ruled it, and a huge tax burden for the people. War and monarchy were seen as entangled. Jefferson and his fellow Republicans did not want a standing army and thought that war could be avoided. (They thought trade sanctions and other economic penalties might be enough to punish or change other nations when needed.)

They also knew that war was not always a choice and for that situation, they had a vision of a Militia rather than army.

Militias were not a standing army. They were formed by free citizens who had day jobs. Militias might (should) meet and train but they had real lives to go back to. The vision was that they would be well-regulated but not that they would be on payroll, lounging around in the barracks or in some free citizens’ bedroom – and the very next amendment addresses that. A standing army meant more expense which meant more taxes.

Now might you just save money on a standing army by letting them stay in the homes of citizens? Nope. The third amendment is "No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law." During peacetime, there would be a Militia that was manned by residents who stayed in their own homes and could rally with their own guns when the need arose.

Such citizens needed the right to bear arms and the first amendment gave them that. Bring your own gun. Sleep in your own bedroom. This is a well-regulated militia we’re relying on, not a standing army collecting a monthly paycheck.

The 2nd and 3rd amendments were about how the US was to deal with breakdowns between nations and how to provide for an army or Militia. The 4th through 8th amendments were about crimes and their consequences, how to deal with breakdowns between citizens through the judicial system.

(The right to a trial by jury has a curious parallel to the Militia. Here was another volunteer citizen group called upon to fill a vital role in a democracy. Militias were a group of citizens who defended the community from outside attack. Juries were a group of citizens who administered justice to defend the community from criminal attacks from within. Both relied on ordinary citizens to do extraordinary things, to restore peace and order.)

The guys in this Militia were a substitute for the standing army that would otherwise need barracks and provisioning and regular paychecks that cost more than what Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans wanted to pay. And they would have the right to bear arms because soldiers needed weaponry and the small government Jefferson envisioned wouldn’t buy those for them.

With that in mind, read the 2nd amendment again.
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

And lest you think that I’m just making all of this up, I’ll close with a couple of quotes from Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren Burger. The first quote is from an interview of his. The second is from a piece he wrote.

"The real purpose of the Second Amendment was to ensure that state armies – the militia – would be maintained for the defense of the state."

"The very language of the Second Amendment refutes any argument that it was intended to guarantee every citizen an unfettered right to any kind of weapon he or she desires."

One of the biggest cons the NRA has played on the American people is not just that they’ve argued that the second amendment has nothing to do with militias or that militias are just any group that decides to call themselves that. It is that they’ve convinced others that an amendment that begins with the words, “A well-regulated” means that a community cannot regulate gun ownership.