BEING AMERICAN

My Friend, Domenic Torchia says:

“We must undo the damage done by the hateful rhetoric from the teapublicans and bring back civility and respect for all Americans and American institutions. Opinions will differ (hate is not an opinion) but in the end we all must be Americans.”

Americans build together, have faith in each others goals, no matter what party. Americans believe that differences of opinion are healthy; working together with opposing views brings out our strengths. That was once upon a time… Things have changed dramatically.

Here is how the Miami Herald assessed the hypocrisy of this election:

Bill Clinton cheats on his wife. Impeach him. Trump proudly brags about sexual assault (and has cheated on his wives). Elect him. Hillary oversaw the department of state while 4 people died in an embassy attack. Put her in jail. 2 Republicans were in office while over 200 people died in embassy attacks. No problem. Immigrants don’t pay taxes. Round them up and kick them out. Trump doesn’t pay taxes. He’s a business genius. Hillary’s foundation only spent 87% of their donations helping people. She’s a crook. Trumps foundation paid off his debts, bought sculptures of him, and made political donations to avoid investigations while using less than 5% of funds for charity (and he got shut down by NY State). So savvy... Put him in the white house. Trump made 4 billion dollars in 40 years, when an index fund started at the same time with the same “small loans” he received would be worth $12 billion today… without a trail of bankruptcies, thousands of lawsuits and burned small business owners. He’s a real business whiz. Hillary took a loss of $700k. She’s a criminal. Trump is the first candidate in the modern era not to release his tax returns, and took a billion dollar  loss in 1 year. Genius. Hillary takes responsibility for private email servers and apologizes. Not credible. Trump denies saying things (on the record) he actually said (on the record), he’s just telling it like it is.

Your arguments are thin. Your ignorance of reality is shocking. Your double-standards are offensive, and your willingness to blindly support him and recycle the rhetoric is absurd. Your opinion is not fact. Your memes are not news articles. And your hypocrisy is not a platform.

Alex Schiller

I thought it was worth repeating. Thank you Alex Schiller.

THE CHAMBER OF HORRORS.

Karl Rove had a horrible, Grinchy, ugly idea.  Supreme court judges are prohibited from spending more than $5,000 to run for re-election in some states. Why not outspend them and get rid of “liberal” judges?

John Grisham wrote a book on just how it could happen.  It was fiction and being a fan, when I read it, it was a scary prospect, IF it could really happen.

In real life, could a well-financed shadowy,  group,  get an ordinary judge, one who made decisions for people suing for redress from corporate neglect, be replaced by a corporate leaning judge?  They began their push in the Southern States of Mississippi, Oklahoma and Texas which is how they caught the attention of John Grisham.

Grisham appeared on LINK public television, along with members of Public Citizen and explained that it is happening all over the United States.  The Chamber of Commerce funds these power grabs,  attacking judges who make decisions in favor of ordinary people and replaces them on the bench with corporate friendly judges.

Here is how they did they did it to Judge Oliver Diaz of Oklahoma.

The Chamber spent $19 million dollars distorting his reputation, using decisions he made for a defendant, and dishonestly twisting the results in the newspaper.  When Diaz tried to buy ad time on television in his area, the Chamber used all the ad time and squeezed him out. He borrowed money from an attorney friend, Paul Minier, to defend himself with ads in the newspapers. The Chamber of Horrors immediately filed suit against him claiming that he made decisions in favor of this attorney. He was suspended from the bench. But, he had recused himself every time his friend came before his court. The case got thrown out after the opposition pulled delay after delay after delay. Then they filed suit against him for tax evasion while he was still in suspension. Again, delay, after delay and the phony suit was thrown out, costing the judge a million in defense, and three years off the bench. When he finally got back on the bench, he lost re-election to Keith Starret because people believe, where there is smoke there is fire. There MUST have been something shady going on.

There was. The Chamber of Horrors.

Chamber CEO Richard Bush has turned the Chamber of Commerce into the leading lobbying group for removal of judges and tort reform, which is another avenue of attack on ordinary citizens in favor of corporate rule. (More about that tomorrow.)

If a defendant has his leg cut off by a piece of farm machinery that was defective and goes for a jury trial and wins in court. The court has the power to reverse the decision, lower the amount, or throw it out and the defendant has to start over again.  Corporations win over 90% of the time against people suing for redress. This is the only weapon the people have against corporate neglect and we are losing our ability to fight because corporate money is strangling the life out of our democracy.

Make your vote count. Vote for corporate regulation and protect judges in your community. Support every measure you can to keep money out of politics.

TRUMP VISITS MURPHYS

Imagine my surprise when I found out my best friend Jim is related to Donald Trump. The resemblance is pretty startling. And he has gone gung ho, preaching the merits of a Trump presidency.

Personally, I think Trump decided to run as a lark and now he can’t insult enough people to get himself out of the election. He’s sort of stuck. This trumper doesn’t agree.

Jim is quite an actor himself. He’s convinced the Trump hairstyle will become the rage as his popularity grows, so he did a pretty good imitation of the hair, the scowl, the whole persona. I get all these emails asking to sign petitions against Trump. I refuse to sign because I think Trump and Sanders have shaken up our corrupt establishment and I’m just cheering on the sidelines.  I hope he wins the Republican nomination since Kaisch doesn’t have a chance. Then the party of obstruction can hold their noses to vote Republican.

Meanwhile, I’ll vote for a sensible, sincere, non billionaire, Sanders, who has the heart of the people and started this whole revolution. Go Sanders. I hate the vilification of Hillary that is going on. She is no worse than most of the beltway wheelers and dealers, but they vilified her when she was a First Lady and they continue to do so now. It is ugly. We need someone clean, like Sanders.

And, just for the record, Jim is not really related to Donald Trump, but he is a supporter.

AMERICA FOR THE PEOPLE.

About 35 people showed up at a nationwide rally for Bernie Sanders for President. We gathered in a parking lot in Sonora, and flashed signs at the passing traffic. I’ve sat on the fence between Hillary, Trump and Bernie.  Hillary has worked hard in public service most of her life and has done wonderful things for others. But, she has wrapped herself in the arm of an unpopular, disappointing  president. Then, after promising she would not take super-pac money against her own party, she has. Not only wall street money but Monsanto, the GMO giant who spends billions to prevent states from labeling where our food comes from and whether it is genetically modified or not. That did it for me. Establishment politics, the failed machine that is inducing companies to go off shore, avoid taxes and take away good jobs from Americans?  Trump and Sanders are the only two candidates mandating change away from the establishment.

Trump says nothing and Sanders very little about climate change while massive extinctions and weather change are playing havoc with our planet. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, we on the ground, must shed the ingrained deniers, people who refuse to acknowledge science. We must shed a do nothing congress, promoting government shutdowns and working lock-step for their party instead the people. If a working person refuses to do his job, he gets fired. How dare Mitch McConnell state he will not even have a hearing on an appointee suggested by a sitting President, whether he is liked or not?

Trump and Sanders represent desperately needed change. Can they get us out of gridlock? I don’t know.

Environmental issues are foremost in the minds of others I met. Keep coal, fossil fuels in the ground. Support wind and solar. I talked with a bee keeper who lives in a pristine area where his bees are turning his garden and orchard into super  production, in a time when Monstanto and Bayer Chemicals are causing colony collapse across the nation. I’m hoping for a candidate that will make sure the laws we already have on the books are obeyed, like those from the EPA and the FDA and the Forest Service; sidestepping regulations when we are literally in danger of earthshaking consequences of fracking, contaminated water, shortages of clean water, decimating natural habitats for profit over nature. We and our institutions are under attack and they are ignoring our laws. How dare they get away with that stuff? They do it by under funding the organizations we depend on.

The group marched along the highway, and into a shopping center. One man was so angry, I thought he was going to attack us. He called us Communists and Socialists. Bernie is an unapologetic Socialist. The angry man wouldn’t talk rationally with us, like is he on Social Security? Does he use Medicare? Has he ridden on a train or does he drive on our socialistic roads? Has he used water from behind a dam? Come on. We all benefit from shared expenditures. Socialist countries like Sweden and Denmark, and Canada and France and many programs in Great Britain have provided a good quality of life.  Big Pharma will tell you socialized medicine is about waiting in lines for poor quality medical care.  Biased they are. They don’t mention the wonderful government sponsored childcare and education. Roosevelt made sweeping changes that saved people with socialistic programs that corporate America has tried to dismantle ever since. Are we better off? Not hardly when it takes two or three income sources for middle class people to keep the wolf from the door. Not when people with college educations are slinging hash.

Bernie is against the consolidation of big banks, and the notion that Wall Street’s obligation is to make obscene amounts of money while working people are struggling to feed their kids. The system is out of whack. Trump feels the business model is the best way to run a country. Trump makes statements about laws he is going to pass that aren’t practical like building a bigger wall. A bigger wall isn’t going to stop the drug cartels who have already moved across the border. Nor stop people from entering the country unless you fence the entire country and put a net over the airspace. He also bothers me because he makes statements and then denies he made them. Even so, Rubio in five yeas has produced ZERO bills and his absenteeism is compared to Finestein who is 82 and Kirk who has had a stroke.  Cruz is more concerned with moral issues than the planet. He pays lip service when to solving problems for working people. I’d run with Trump over them and figure he’d be smart enough to figure it out.

Suffice it to say, there is no perfect candidate. If there is, I haven’t heard about him or her. So, for the time being, I’m hanging in with Bernie. I believe this is true. He really does care for all.

 

 

 

A BIT OF POLITICAL LEVITY.

I know the state of the union address is tomorrow and as we near caucus time, the frenzy for political positioning is a slug-fest, as all the verbal dirt comes flying out of the bag. Philosopher John Arbuthnot said:  All political parties die from swallowing their own lies.  Hmm!  If only it were true.

A dialog on whiskey in 1952 puts a bit of levity into the political process that tickles the funny bone and is worth repeating.

In 1952, Armon M. Sweat, Jr. a member of the Texas House of Representatives, was asked about his position on whiskey. Here is his answer:

“If you mean whiskey, the devils brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean that evil drink that topples Christian men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pit of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness, and hopelessness, then, my friend I am opposed to it with every fiber of my being.”

“However, if by whiskey you mean the lubricant of conversation, the philosophic juice, the elixir of life, the liquid that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in their hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning; if you mean that drink that enables him to magnify his joy, and to forget life’s great tragedies and heart breaks and sorrow; if you mean that drink the sale of which pours into Texas treasuries untold millions of dollars each year, that provides tender care for our crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities, and community colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor of it. This is my position and as always, I refuse to compromise on my principles.”

I love it.

A good friend stopped in for a visit yesterday with his “new” dog, Daisy. Daisy doesn’t like to have her picture taken. I don’t see Bob Urban very often, but I always enjoy his company. We talked the afternoon away and caught up on mutual friends. One thing we don’t discus is politics and religion. I haven’t a clue what Bob’s politics are. But, I hope he enjoys Mr. Sweat’s dialog entitled Whiskey as much as I did.

Caio

 

CONGRESS CRITTERS

Congress Critters from both parties work against what is best for the 99% of working people who just want to raise their families, have a decent job,  and get a bit of fun out of life. I side with the party who champions working people most. But this came in my mail:

Democrats who shill for corporations at the expense of their constituents.  We must let them know we are watching and won’t forget when it comes time for re-election.  I’m disgusted that I sent money to five of the people on this list and I’ve let it be known I won’t send another dollar.  That is a Republican bill trying to gut the DODD-FRANK protections from another Wall Street melt down.(It didn’t pass, by the way.)

The second one is the Keystone Pipeline. The Governor of North Dakota keeps touting the jobs it will bring, some say exaggerated numbers, but no mention is made about the town flooded with oil from a pipeline leak that ruined their wells and made them evacuate their homes and businesses. Leaks, we are told, happen all the time in these pipelines.  Gas is at its cheapest in years and we don’t need that pipeline. It is an environmental disaster as we get cleaner and cleaner energy.

I can’t say they are ALL TOTALLY bad, but it needs watching.

And, since I’m on the subject of congress critters, I should apologize for this, but these people are holding public office. All are newly elected Republicans for 2015.

There are a lot of good Republicans out there, but, are there so few good ones around they vote in people so out of touch with reality?

My information came from Daily KOS.

Well, I’ve had my rant for the day. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll have something more positive on my mind.