Insanity Is ...

Apart from Einstein's wonderful definition of insanity "Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.", there are different kinds of insanity like that of the US and it's decent into this wonderful realm regarding politics or the lack thereof.

It’s 2020, four years from now. The campaign is under way to succeed the president, who is retiring after a single wretched term. Voters are angrier than ever—at politicians, at compromisers, at the establishment. Congress and the White House seem incapable of working together on anything, even when their interests align. With lawmaking at a standstill, the president’s use of executive orders and regulatory discretion has reached a level that Congress views as dictatorial—not that Congress can do anything about it, except file lawsuits that the divided Supreme Court, its three vacancies unfilled, has been unable to resolve.

On Capitol Hill, Speaker Paul Ryan resigned after proving unable to pass a budget, or much else. The House burned through two more speakers and one “acting” speaker, a job invented following four speakerless months. The Senate, meanwhile, is tied in knots by wannabe presidents and aspiring talk-show hosts, who use the chamber as a social-media platform to build their brands by obstructing—well, everything. The Defense Department is among hundreds of agencies that have not been reauthorized, the government has shut down three times, and, yes, it finally happened: The United States briefly defaulted on the national debt, precipitating a market collapse and an economic downturn. No one wanted that outcome, but no one was able to prevent it.

Indicators of this dire future becoming true are everywhere from dysfunctional governance, healthcare and infrastructure decay to gross financial inequality ginned by WS and the Military/Industrial/Congressional Complex. Factor in the 2016 election as catalyst with two corrupt entities doing the drill and add in the dark troika of environmental degradation, resource depletion and global warming and you have a CF in the making. 

What can be done? As a minimum we need the following as Jefferson said: "Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of nineteen years. If it be enforced longer, it is an act of force, and not of right."

• Term Limits: 2 for senate, 4 for house.
• No Gerrymandering.
• 10 year term for SC justices.
• Binding Referendums for issues affecting all Americans. Vietnam, Iraq & Libya anyone?
• No revolving door: When you're out of politics, you don't lobby.
• Public financing of campaigns.
• Part time Congress with pay parsed out accordingly.
• Perks end when politicians leave office.
• HC for politicians, the same as the rest of us.
• Congress shall obey the laws they pass.
• No self imposed raises.
• Transparency in terms of how budgets are created.
• Daily minutes of senate and house posted online.
• Single payer HC. Everybody in, nobody out.
• Restore our civil rights.
• Balance the budget with emphasis given to rebuilding infrastructure and not to endless wars.

Any questions?