Monday, November 11, 2019

Silos in AL politics

There is ignorance, misinformation and bias in the public political discourse in Alabama.

There are also pools of knowledge that could be helpful to Alabamians if the same was communicated to them.

Two of these are Alabama business chambers of commerce and the Alabama health care community (the latter comprised of doctors, nurses, hospitals, health insurance companies, governmental agencies and university academic departments). Alabama citizens should be better informed about what the business chambers of commerce think and what the Alabama health care community thinks.

CHAMBERS OF COMMERCE
11/23/19 National political crisis and failure of governance

I am seeking to communicate this to Alabama business chambers of commerce, because of our national political crisis and failure of governance.

In the incapacitation of our governance, there is widespread ignorance of voters about complex matters, there is a self-serving political class that advantages itself by keeping their political bases riled up with egregiously slanted communications, and there are pools of expertise with valuable knowledge and understanding about the complex matters as to which there is widespread voter ignorance.

In current conditions, these pools of expertise are in silos, their valuable knowledge and understanding do not get imparted to the voters, and the voters are relegated to receiving their slanted communications from the segment of the political class to which they bear allegiance.

The slanted communications from the two competing segments of the political class are contradictory and contribute to political deadlock.

Business, to serve its purposes, has an array of expertise, knowledge and understanding about the constitution, the law, public officials, the environment, the economy health care, gun violence and immigration.

In the national political crisis of impeachment, business chambers of commerce have the capacity to evaluate whether Donald Trump is violating the rule of law as the Democrats are alleging and, if so, the risk of that to the proper functioning of the republic so long as Donald Trump continues as President and also afterwards if Donald Trump should continue for four more years as President.

Business chambers of commerce also have the capacity to evaluate whether self-serving, self-protecting GOP members of Congress are failing in their constitutional duties to uphold the rule of law and are misleading their GOP voters about the risk of Donald Trump to the proper functioning of the republic.

I will not prejudge how any Alabama chamber of commerce makes the foregoing evaluations.

I will, however, say, if an Alabama chamber of commerce makes an evaluation that Donald Trump is violating the rule of law and is a serious risk to the the proper functioning of the republic, such Alabama chamber of commerce should speak publicly about the matter.

For what it is worth to you, my own thinking about this subject is indicated at http://trumptweet.blogspot.com/2019/11/draft-articles-of-impeachment.html.

Thank you for your attention to this communication.
Robert Shattuck

12/4/2019
Alabama business chambers of commerce should come out of their silo and particularly communicate to Alabamians what the chambers of commerce think about:
1. Trump's three years of charges about Fake News and the making up of stories about him;.
2. Trump's alleged 13,345 false or misleading claims in 993 days as President https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/trump-claims-database/; and
3. Whether Trump has or seeks too much power as an economic czar over United States business, with the consequence of replacing rule of law by rule of Trump and contributing to the corruption of Trump using his economic czar powers to gain political allegiance to him from individual businesses, business sectors, and geographical areas of the country.

12/14/2019
The impeachment is focused on Trump shaking down the newly elected Ukraine president in order for Trump to get a personal political benefit.
This has been accompanied  by Trump categorical statements that he did nothing wrong and stark fear of the GOP to contradict Trump by saying Trump did do something wrong.
It is fair to think, if Trump is not convicted in the Senate trial, Trump will be emboldened  to abuse his Presidential power and do more shaking down of victims in many other types of situations in order for Trump to obtain other personal benefits.
The fear will become more pervasive in the United States, particularly in the economy, that will further squelch any criticisms being made of Trump regarding his abuses of his Presidential powers.
Jeff Bezos and Amazon may not be silenced from making criticism of Trump, but big swaths of the business community may be cowed by Trump and subjected to Trump shake downs

3/2/2020
The corona virus emergency has called attention to whether Trump has hollowed out the Federal government so that the government cannot fulfill important functions on which the American people depend, but about which hollowing out the American people are ignorant. ALGOP members of Congres probably cannot be looked to by Alabamians for information about this. For information about what has happened, refer to Michael Lewis' 2018 book The Fifth Risk, and George Packer's Atlantic Monthly article The President Is Winning His War on American Institutions. The Alabama business community should come out of their silo and communicate to Alabamians about this.


8/30/2020 Gun violence
After the Galleria mall shooting in 2018, I thought Alabama business chambers of commerce should be more outspoken on the subject of gun violence and gun control.
The controversy regarding Barry Moore's Facebook post about Kyle Rittenhouse has prompted me to add this section to the this blog entry.

4/21/21 email to Shelby County Chamber
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
To: ____@shelbychamber.org
Cc: ____@shelbychamber.org
Sent: Wed, Apr 21, 2021 8:31 am
Subject: Shelby County Chamber; AL HD73 special election; guns; abortion
Dear Mr. Mancer
I am availing of the House District 73 special election and the candidacy of Kenneth Paschal to write this email to the Shelby County Chamber.
Kenneth Paschal's campaign website https://www.kennethpaschal.com/ identifies him as connected with the Chamber and says the following:
Shelby County Chambers Governmental Affairs Group member; and Exchange Club of Shelby County Board of Directors
Committed to Pro-Life, supporter of Gun Rights, protection of your liberties and freedoms, and strengthening the Republican Party.
I have been advocating, via Twitter and my blogs, that the Alabama business community, as represented by chambers of commerce, bring to bear a better sensibility on the two political issues of guns and abortion, than is standard in the Alabama Republican Party, which is extreme in opposing abortion and in opposing increased gun control.
In light of the special election and the 2022 election cycle generally, and in light of current affairs, I urge the Shelby County Chamber to give new or further consideration to the two political issues of abortion and increased gun control. This would include review of the public messaging the chamber does regarding the same and the support that it and its members give to (or withhold from) political candidates connected to these two issues, and decide whether there should be changes in such public messaging and in support or not of candidates, such as Kenneth Paschal.
I am not a member of the chamber and can only appeal to the chamber's sense of civic responsibility and sense of what is good for Alabama business.
I have to think the chamber believes that gun violence is bad for business in Alabama, and reducing gun violence would be beneficial.
On abortion, let me put it in terms of a question: If Roe v. Wade was overturned, would it be good or bad for Alabama business for the Alabama legislature to enact a total ban on abortion in light of things like possible unwillingness of businesses to locate in Alabama due to a total ban on abortion.
While I can only appeal to the chamber's sense of civic responsibility and sense of what is good for Alabama business, I can augment the force of my appeal by making it public within my limited capacity to do that via Twitter and my blogs.
In that vein, please see https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2019/11/silos-in-al-politics.html, where, after I send this email, I will copy and paste this email.
Thank you for your attention to this email.
Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck

10/10/22 

[added 3/22/2021]
3/22/2021 Abortion


[added 9/14/2021]
9/14/2021 Vaccine mandates

ALABAMA HEALTH CARE COMMUNITY
Healthcare 2020

In the United States, one political side continues to seek  to "repeal and replace" Obamacare, the other political side trying to stand athwart that, and Trump and the Republicans doing piecemeal dismantling of Obamacare.

This leaves the healthcare system a mess, with no sign that our broken, polarized Congress has any capacity to do its job for the American people regarding healthcare.

Further, this is in the context of a looming national healthcare crisis growing out of, among other things, obesity, diabetes and the increased number of more old people who are living longer.

The country's current financial duress in the healthcare domain is only going to grow much greater in the coming years.

How well Congress and the Federal government, and how well state legislatures and state governments, will be able to get their acts together and manage the ticking healthcare time bomb is uncertain. There is reason for a lack of confidence.

I am not in any position of authority and I have no healthcare policy role, public or private.

Nonetheless, in connection with the 2017 special Senate election in Alabama, I undertook to try to engage the candidates, academics, and representatives from the healthcare industry, etc., to have public discussion of their views about what should be done regarding health care reform. You may learn more about what I tried to do at http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2017/06/health-care-symposium.html.

This effort I made in 2017 went nowhere.
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