Twins - you just lost a loyal fan

I could blame the legislators, or the Hennepin County officials (and I do), for what appears to be a successful drive to have the taxpayers pay for yet another stadium for the Minnesota Twins, but it wouldn't have happened if the Twins hadn't demanded it, implying that the team would otherwise leave, and then spent a lot of money greasing the way to make it happen.

I testified Thursday night, along with many other stadium opponents, to the tax committee of the Minnesota House, who then voted 15-13. I've been an avid baseball fan for 60 years, and a loyal Twins fan for many of those years... even when the Twins were a bunch of low-paid kids who seldom won a game. I love baseball, but this stadium deal-cutting is not about baseball... it's about a greedy businessman who wants to run his business on the backs of taxpayers. It's about thousands of sports nuts who believe we ALL should support THEIR chosen pastime. It's about sportscasters and other media folks who make their livings from professional sports. And... it's about legislators who don't have the least damned idea, or care, what a decent relationship between citizens and government should be.

This battle has been going on for many years, and the tax-paying public has spoken out over, and over, and over, but the big-money thieves have kept coming back, year after year. It appears they have finally won. They did it by just wearing their opponents out... they had the money, and we had to spend our own time and money trying to keep them from taking more of it.

Those pushing for the Hennepin County tax and stadium deal KNEW that if the citizens were ASKED, via referendum, to approve or disapprove, that they would have emphatically replied HELL NO, so the tax committee voted (15-13) to not allow a referendum, despite it being called for by state law.

To all of you folks who believe you have a right to force others to support your chosen form of entertainment, I raise my finger in disgust (you know which one). You can take my money forcibly, but you cannot make me support what you've done, and I will not overlook your theft. You have spoiled a great sport for me. From this day forward, my formerly beloved Twins are no longer a part of my life... not even on television. I'll stash my plethora of Twins memorabilia... the hats, hankies, newspapers, video tapes, my box of Wheaties with the Twins on the cover, and even the tape of the Berenguer Boogie. They will be delegated to that section of my memories I might call... "Great memories of the past that are now gone".

I'm mad. A few greedy people have screwed up a great sport. But... baseball is far bigger than the Twins and major leagues. Believe me, I can enjoy baseball without MLB, and I will. You bet I'll miss watching the Twins... yelling when Juan Castro makes another astounding fielding play, or watching the great batting judgments of young Joe Mauer or Shannon Stewart, or the fielding of Torie Hunter. I'll miss watching every one of them. Those players now get relegated to the same place as Bob Feller, Joe Campanella, Willy Mays, Gil Hodges, Satchel Paige, and a hundred others... to my fond memories of baseball.

That's the past. Sorry it's gone, but baseball lives on. There are two baseball-playing high schools within a bicycle ride of me. It's not MLB-caliber play, but professional-level play is NOT what a love of the game is about. I can support the St. Paul Saints, who DO understand love of baseball, and about having fun at games.

In case I haven't made myself completely clear... try this:
Twins, and MLB, you just put yourselves onto my shit list (the legislature was already there).

Putting a stop to politics-as-usual

How can the American public put an end to the disastrous policies of the two old parties that I likened to Tweeledum and Tweedledee... which are so similar that they are often collectively called "Demopublicans" or "Republicrats"? First, we each have several options that simply WON'T work:

1. Not voting.
2. Switching your vote from one to the other.

Not voting changes nothing. You will simply be labeled, regardless of your reason, as too lazy or unconcerned to bother to vote. Regardless of how few people vote, every race will still have a winner who will become your representative. Those who do vote will decide for you.

Switching to the "other" party does not change results either. There are always many dissatisfied voters changing their votes, most often from whichever party currently has power to the other party, who can, since they're the "out" party, say "See how bad things are when you elect our opponents?" If that succeeds in switching more control to the other party, then the same claim will be made by the new "out" party.

Look at how the voters have tried their damndest to find a good choice... over the past 100 years, switching power from one party to the other, and back, with the result that we've been saddled with a Republican president for 52 years and a Democrat for 48 years... almost a dead heat. A tally of Congressional control would give a similarly back and forth result... every possible combination has been tried, and all for nought.


What have the results been? Ever-increasing taxes, ever-increasing national debt, ever-increasing intrusion into our personal lives, more wars than you can easily count, and an ever-increasing number of Americans in prisons and jails. Our political leaders have no regard for our Constitution, because they've gotten away with disregarding it for so long. To top it off, our leaders have alienated much of the world - to such an extent that we've been attacked here at home.

It is so clear to most of us that "doing what we've been doing will give us what we've always gotten". What can Americans do to shake up our corrupt political system? How can we "take a wrench" to the political machine? Our ancestors tarred and feathered tax collectors, burned government buildings, and other serious forms of protest, but is there anything short of violent revolt that we can do?

Hell yes, there is. Even though the D's and R's have worked hard to make it almost impossible for other parties or candidates to compete with them, it is not impossible. There are numerous other parties, working damned hard to give Americans a choice at election time. The largest of these parties is the Libertarian Party. Libertarians have worked hard to give all Americans another choice on the ballot for President. It requires work in every state, often long, arduous petitioning just to get the candidate on the ballot. Because, as a matter of principle, Libertarian candidates will not accept tax money for their campaigns, it is an uphill battle of epic proportions. But... the candidate has been there as a choice for you, election after election.

What good will it do to vote for a Libertarian candidate, or one from another newer party? Won't it be a "wasted vote", meaning that a D or R will STILL win? Of course, if ENOUGH people vote Libertarian, it certainly won't be wasted, but suppose that the Libertarian candidate DOESN'T win. In what way are the votes that candidate receives wasted? If you vote GOP and a Democrat wins, is your vote wasted? If you vote Democratic and a Republican wins, has your vote been wasted? Of course not, but the D's and R's have perpetrated the "wasted vote" hogwash on Americans... only when it comes to "other" parties.

In fact, votes for other-party candidates, even when they don't win, have a great deal of effect. THOSE VOTES SEND A MESSAGE. Those votes are, at the very least, a PROTEST vote... a scream that politics-as-usual is no longer acceptable. In the case of a Libertarian vote, it's much more... because the Libertarians stand for specific positions; every vote for a Libertarian is a vote for a set of clear positions. In that context, a Libertarian vote means far more than a vote for either of two parties whose positions are a mystery to all of us.

When you vote GOP of Democrat, those parties can interpret those votes any way they choose, because we don't know WHAT the votes were for... only WHO. We don't know what their candidates stand for, because they won't tell us with any specificity, because they don't want to alienate ANY potential voter. Two whole giant parties who stand for nothing in particular, because they want to "appeal" to everyone. Is it any wonder that they appear almost identical, with positions we can't understand, or trust them to keep?

American politics has become nothing more than a sick game... a rigged contest between two factions of the same party, played, not with ideas, or positions, or vision, but instead with grandiose media appearances, hype, and double-talk. The D's and R's PLAY at being opponents, and they spend huge sums of OUR tax money to convince us to choose one or the other.

If you vote either R or D, you really ARE wasting your vote, because the results will be the same regardless of which of them wins. They offer you no choice... just different names. If you want your vote to mean something, you have no alternative but to seek out other candidates to vote for... do a little study, then ask yourself this question: Which party is CLOSEST to matching what I think should happen? Don't be fooled into thinking that you know what the D's and R's stand for, because you can't know. They will be vague and noncommittal enough to allow you to ASSUME that they must mean what you want, but think back over their record... what they actually DID, and ask yourself whether that's what you want more of.

I give the same warning I've given before: If Americans don't wake up SOON, stop falling for the tricks of the D's and R's, and take advantage of the alternatives they have, our society will continue to decline in the same way it has.

Tweedledum or Tweedledee

There is no disputing the headlock that the old parties have on political offices, at least at the state and national levels. The D's and R's have voted themselves many advantages and given other opponents many hurdles to overcome. By using tax money and by soliciting contributions in return for political votes, they've also raised the cost of running a successful campaign almost out of reach.

In so doing, the Democratic and Republican parties have virtually destroyed the idea of representative government. While we disparage other nations that don't have competitive elections, and even militarily intervene in the name of open elections, our own elections are a sham in favor of two parties that are so similar as to be two sides of the same coin. I challenge anyone to define a significant difference between the two old parties. Assuredly, they each have their different traditional supporters... the Democrats have union support and the Republicans still have more business support, but even those differences have melted away as unions faded and businessmen began greasing both sides of the aisle to hedge their bets.

It should be obvious to any voter paying attention that it really makes no difference whether you vote for a Republican or a Democrat, which is why so many eligible voters don't bother to vote. If you can't even tell what you're voting for, why bother?

Most of the people who do bother to vote, do so out of fear of what the "other" vote might result in. Some vote Republican out of fear that Democrats will make this nation even more socialistic than it already is. Others vote Democratic out of fear that Republicans will implement some sort of "religious right" theocracy. It's a game the R and D parties play well... using fear to keep their own supporters loyal to them.

Voters are faced with choosing between two very poor choices... having to choose the lesser of two evils... a LOSE-LOSE choice. It's the frying pan or the fire... the rock or the hard place.

NEITHER of the old parties has done a damned thing to deserve your support. Both have thrust us into damnable wars. Both have ballooned the size of government and taxes. Both have taken our liberties away from us. Both have made a mockery of our Constitution. Their records are shameful, filled with lies, corruption, deception, and arrogant deceit. They have taken positions that should be honorable and filled them with deal-cutting, vote-buying, double-talking pawns who owe their allegiance to their party rather than to the citizens they're supposed to represent.

Like Tweedledum and Tweedledee of Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, the D and the R parties are virtually identical fat little men. It doesn't make any difference which one you talk with, they respond with replies that sound suspiciously like political answers.

`I know what you're thinking about,' said Tweedledum; `but it isn't so, nohow.'

`Contrariwise,' continued Tweedledee, `if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.'

Naturally, the D and R parties would have you choose between them. Being twins, it makes little difference to them which choice you make. They know full well that, since you'll be confused, you'll likely vote for some D's and some R's, which they'll both be quite content with.

The approval rating of the current BIG R is now at 32%. That's a LOT of dissatisfaction, and he was the winner. Does that mean that the D's will gain? I don't think anyone believes that, since it took a lot of cooperation from elected D's for BIG R to do such a miserable job. All of which illustrates just how accustomed we have become to truly disastrous results. We haven't forgotten the multiple embarrassments (sex scandal, lies under oath) of the last BIG D, have we?

Are Americans so hoodwinked that they will continue to buy into this farce forever? Do Americans believe they are helpless to do anything about it? In my next commentary, I will, once again, describe just how simple the solution is, and how that simple solution can quickly and emphatically return our nation to a path of sanity.