Month: July 2017

Anyone who has been paying attention since the election of 2016 can easily see that the Republican party is in over its head. Under the leadership of Mitch McConnell, the Senate converted a loyal opposition into the Party of NO! whereby any and every Obama initiative was blocked. On the house side, all Ryan could come up with is a series of cuts, cuts, and more cuts. Now that they have total and complete control over everything, what have they produced? Zero. What are they working on besides “repeal Obama care”? Nothing. It is painfully obvious there is no effective leadership, no idea what to do next or how to do it. Unfortunately, except for the Sanders wing, Democrats aren’t doing much better.

FDR had the radical notion that everyone in America should enjoy several basic rights, he did not use the word “entitlements”. These basic rights included: a job, a decent home, medical care, education, and protection from old age destitution. Social Security and Medicare solved two of these problems for seniors. Obamacare will cover the medical part for the general population, too, if Congress will shed its virulent partisanship and enact the necessary amendments. That leaves the rest of FDR’s vision open to the question of which are rights and which are entitlements, and should the public, through the workings of government, be involved in providing any of them? That is the question. Conservatives say “no”. Progressives say; “If there is the will, there will be a way.”

Here are some numbers that may or may not mean anything to some people:
$183 million; the cost of security for Trump Tower $148 million: the total budget for the National Endowment for the Arts $1 million plus; complaints received during a six-year period by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau $12 billion; amount returned to those who were cheated $1 million plus; spent per day on lobbying against the CFPB.

Thirty states responded to the Trump’s administration’s request for extensive data on registered voters. The rest of the states, those who refused to provide such data, have done so for a variety of reasons, one of which is the source, the person who made the request: Kris Kobach. This guy has a well-earned reputation as a champion and active practitioner of voter suppression. When selecting polling places in the 2016 presidential election in Kansas, for example, he placed only one polling place in each of the poorest sections of the state to serve thousands of voters, but numerous polling places in the more affluent sections to serve far fewer voters. The result was exactly what he wanted: long lines of minority voters who had to wait hours to vote. So when Trump asks that question derisively; “What are they worried about?”, those who know Kobach have the answer. It is quite simple: the entire “integrity commission” is a charade to popularize Trump’s contention that “millions voted illegally which gave Hillary Clinton the edge in the popular vote”. Skeptics can envision the master suppressor playing with these data with one thing in mind: “how can I find a way to purge certain kinds of voters from the rolls?” And you know what he means by “certain kinds of voters”.

Whenever a Republican misdeed is called out, there are several responses available depending on the nature of the sin and the medium available:
1 “Hillary did worse things” 2 “it was Obama’s fault” 3 “Both sides do it” 4 “So what?” Collusion, schmollusion, big deal, there is no “there” there, take a deep breath and get back to work 5 “Who me?” I wasn’t even there
If you can suggest other ways to deflect the attention away from Republicans in general and Donald Trump in particular, send them to whoever is in charge at the moment. That is: if you can find out who that might be.

Your op-ed of July 12, 2017, regarding Trump’s so-called “Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity” was spot on. This is nothing more than the Republican party’s attempt (naked and blatant) to suppress the vote of poor and minority citizens. Any one who doubts that is naïve in the extreme. Anyone who justifies it needs some conscience raising.

[This is a resubmission of a letter to the editor dated June 2, 2017. You publish so many letters by trail-only advocates, that it seems only right you might consider publishing a letter balancing out that position.]
Was it not generally understood, when the State financed the purchase of the UP rail line, that the rails would be used for public transit? Heaven knows we desperately need better public transit in this county. The “trail only” concept would be great for bicyclists and hikers, perhaps numbering in the dozens or even hundreds. But a conventional trolley, fed by neighborhood shuttle buses, would serve thousands: students, seniors, shoppers, workers, tourists, you name it. Not everyone can walk a long distance or ride a bicycle, but everyone does need public transportation.

Republicans elected Trump.. They managed to cobble together enough Electoral College votes in three key states to put him in the Wide House in spite of his opponent gaining almost 3 million more votes. Now, in order to protect the total control of government his election gave them, Republicans are doing everything in their power to keep Trump in office as POTUS. The Republican position is that Trump can do no wrong, can’t even say anything wrong. His every utterance is explained, rationalized, or justified. His every action is accepted and supported, even his blatant obstruction of justice in the firing of James Comey, which would get any other president impeached on the spot. But Trump is not any other president. He has a solid 30 to 35 percent of the voting base that will vote for him no matter what. That voting bloc is what will keep Republicans in power as long (and only as long) as Trump is in office. If he is ever impeached, or pulls a boner so egregious that even tribal Republicans can’t abide, at such a time, all bets are off. In the meantime, Republicans will shamelessly continue their uncritical support and adulation. And America will continue its downhill slide.

Have you heard of that as of today, glyphosphate will be added to the list of cancer-causing chemicals by the state of California?

A recent letter stated flatly that the Democrats have no platform that tells the voters what they stand for, but that the Republican Party does. That is only half true. Republicans have a platform, all right: 57 pages of hot air, campaign talking points repeated ad infinitum with so much excess verbiage it is difficult to ferret out the essence of it. On the other side (although poorly expressed by Hillary Clinton as a Democrat candidate for president) a progressive Democratic platform is clear and specific, containing among other things: a living wage, health care for all; tuition free college; fully funded public schools; racial, economic, and social justice; unfettered voting rights; unrestricted women’s health; prison sentencing reform; a progressive tax code; all-out greenhouse gas reduction; immigration reform; preservation of public lands; etc. There is a substantial difference between the two major political parties, and their respective platforms spell it out. Naysayers put the Democratic goals as “pie in the sky, too expensive, impossible to achieve”, etc., but there isn’t one issue that couldn’t be resolved if there were the political will to do so. Currently there are too many Republicans who simply do not want to share what they have with any have-nots. But, if and when we can persuade more of them to adopt the Kevin Durant philosophy of taking less so that the team will have more, then miracles can happen. The only losers in a Democratic win would be the super wealthy, and they wouldn’t even feel it.