Thursday, November 22, 2018
Tuesday, November 13, 2018
Fiction vs Reality
The West Wing, Season 3, Episode 3 - Ways and Means
The subpoenas are handed out in the hearing over Bartlet's concealment of his multiple sclerosis. The special prosecutor, Clement Rollins (Pryor), appears to be both fair and responsible, but C.J. believes the White House will be better served in the public eye if investigated by a partisan agent. She therefore decides—against the strong objections of White House counsel Oliver Babish—to present Rollins as an ally of the administration, thereby forcing Congress to take control over the investigation. --from Wikipedia
The idea was that the Special Prosecutor was too well respected and expected to do a good job, that sending the investigation to the House would turn a legitimate fact-finding investigation into an all out partisan brawl which could be defeated. Sounds eerily familiar to what happening now.
Pro-Choice is the Only Choice
This one might get difficult, but let’s give it a try. If you want a society with fewer abortions, your only choice is to vote for Democrats. That is the only party with a platform that will actually reduce the number of abortions -
- access to birth control
- comprehensive sex education
- expanding access to health care
- affordable education
- early childcare/welfare/food stamps
The Republican answer is to simply ban the medical practice, which doesn’t prevent abortions but makes them less safe for the mothers. Outlawing abortions also fails to acknowledge the instances in which abortions are a medical necessity or the least bad of two choices. It’s not a good choice, but is one that many hopeful mothers are forced to make - when the genetic or ultrasound tests show that the fetus will not survive the pregnancy or the birth. It is a terrible decision but one that a mother must make with her physician. The Republicans insert themselves between a women and here OB/GYN with unnecessary testing and sometimes force the physician to lie.
I understand that people see this as a black and white issue, but as with most things in life, the practice is quite gray. There are legitimate, medical reasons for abortions or induced miscarriages, and they are all sad and terrible. But the answer isn’t to make the women criminals or punish the physicians. The answer is to make the practice an unnecessary as possible and that is where Democratic policies win the argument.
Midterms are Over!
The Midterms are over! No more political ads for about 18 months. The Democrats scored a big victory last night taking back control of the House of Representatives. In fact, Democratic candidates received about 4 million more votes than the Republican candidates (about 9 points overall). That is a strong rebuke of Trump and his politics in Urban and Suburban districts. Democrats must show again what responsible leadership looks like. While I am not a member of the House and the Democratic leadership, I think their first priorities should be as follows:
- Governmental Accountability and Ethics Reform - strong legislation to hold members and appointees to task for abusing the public trust.
- New Voting Rights Legislation - improve ballot network security, require paper trails, automatic audits of at least 10% of precincts, automatic recounts at 1% difference, ban with penalties misinformation about election details, penalties for voter suppress (like only putting 3 machines or broken machines in a majority-black precinct), penalties for machines than miscount votes (punish the manufacturer), prevent voter purges, ban robocalls, automatic voter registration at 18, and other good ideas.
- Others - Reinstate Net Neutrality, strength protections for pre-existing conditions, replace cost-sharing reductions to lower premiums, and I am sure that I am forgetting some major items.
Most importantly, Democrats will take over the leadership of Congressional Committees. No longer will the abuses of the Trump administration be covered up by the Legislative branch. There are certain things that should be investigated - like the response to Puerto Rico or the abuse against migrant children by taking them from their families. Let Mueller do his job and wait for his report. He already has a successful list of convictions, pleas and indictments.
Trump makes a move on Mueller
Whelp, it happened. President Trump has fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Trump seemed to only have 3 problems with Sessions.
- His Southern Accent (which he deems stupid)
- He graduated from the University of Alabama (which he deems inferior)
- He recused himself from the Investigation in Russian Interference in 2016 (which he wanted the AG to protect him from, but why do you need protection if you did nothing wrong).
Now, don't get me wrong, I strongly dislike Jeff Sessions. I have no doubt that he will burn in Hell for all of eternity for his treatment of blacks, Hispanics and the LGBT community. But Sessions's removal, also effectively fired Rod Rosenstein from overseeing the Mueller Investigation. In the normal order of business, the deputy AG becomes AG. But that doesn't accomplish what Trump wants to accomplish.
Instead he installs his own protector as AG to take the investigation from the DAG. This is it. This is the ballgame. You cannot say that you believe in the Rule of Law, if the President is above the law. Even if the President had done nothing wrong, curtailing an investigation to protect your friends and your family is still obstruction. Even using your Constitutional powers for corrupt intent is abuse of those powers.
Suppose you are a Trump supporter, imagine for 5 seconds that President Obama or a President Clinton had made moves to impede the progress of an investigation into themselves or their friends. You should act now the you would act if that had occurred.
Saturday, November 10, 2018
Friday, November 9, 2018
Public Education and Political Parties
If you believe in Public Education - as a force for good, a weapon against poverty, a vaccine against ignorance - then you must vote for the Democrats. The other political party consistently shows itself hostile to public education by cutting resources, eliminating assistants, and outright attacking teachers.
I am a proud product of public schools - K-12, Undergrad, Masters, Doctorate. I taught in public schools for 7 years. I would not be where I am today without public schools. And I firmly believe that all children deserve a quality education. The Democratic Party stands for education, stands for children, and stands for teachers.
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You cannot say that you support education while voting Republican. If you believe in education, believe in a better future, better citizenry, and better economy. It is a simple choice - Vote for the Democrats.
Voter Suppression is a Republican Tactic
Make no mistake. The Republican Party is the party of voter suppression. Instead of being party of American ideals and good ideas that can persuade voters to trust them with our future, it became the party that blocks as many voters as possible from making their voice heard. The Democrats want you to vote, even if you disagree with us. We want to make it as easy to participate in the system without unnecessary barriers.
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| H/T to /u/1mjtaylor |
Republicans have different ideas about the most fundamental right of all Americans. They close polling places in populated areas, in minority areas (Kansas erased the only polling place in a Hispanic-majority city), and on college campuses (see Boone in 2016). They limit the availability of early voting, reducing hours and even closing on the weekends (no Sunday voting?!?). They kick people off the voter rolls for little reason (of 53k voter denials, 70% are black) like saying someone moved because they didn’t send back in a nondescript postcard. They push for voter ID laws but then severely limit the allowable ID’s (picking ones that minorities are less likely to have as in NC with near surgical precision) or make them more difficult to obtain. Free IDs might be free, but it costs a person working 2 minimum wage jobs a day off work. If you live in a black community they are probably shutting down the nearest DMVs (see Alabama). They actively send out misinformation to voters telling them the wrong dates for the election or that you can vote by text message. They send out fundraising letters that look like official voter mail to scam old people into donating to their campaigns. And they ruthlessly gerrymander districts to create safe districts for themselves, effectively allowing legislators to pick their voters instead of voters picking the legislators (In the 2017 blue wave election in Virginia the Democratic governor won by 9 points, but the House of Delegates only broke even). In at least 2 states, the person in charge of protecting the elections is the person running for governor (Georgia and Kansas) as more of the scams become evident.
Today, the Republican party claims that counting your vote is fraud. They can't win without cheating.
#MAGABomber
Just two weeks a crazy Trump fan sent pipe bombs to leaders of the Democratic Party and vocal critics of the President - Obamas, Clintons, Biden, Eric Holder, Maxine Waters, George Soros, Robert De Niro, and John Brennan (care of CNN). This list easily reads as a political hit list of the President’s favorite targets, a President that celebrates violence and encourages the hateful rhetoric of modern politics. While many politicians in the past have played on our differences, dividing Americans, Trump has enflamed those divisions for political gain.
During campaign rallies, he routinely encouraged violence against protestors - even offering to pay the legal fees (he didn’t end up paying). Trump “joked” about 2nd Amendment solutions should Clinton win After the election, he defended the white supremacists in Charlottesville that not only beat counter protestors with sticks, bats and shields but also murdered a woman by driving a car into the crowd. During these midterm rallies, he has attacked Democrats an a angry mob that will use violence if they win back Congress (which makes no sense whatsoever, but that’s who he is). He still leads chants of lock her up, though exactly who and for what isn’t exactly clear other than political opponents (Ted Cruz also got into this by saying that his opponent Beto O’Rourke should be jailed, I guess for running against him). And just last week he celebrated a Republican representative that plead guilty to assaulting a reporter that simply asked the candidate their position on repealing the ACA. Celebrated him as an American journalist was murdered by the Saudis (who only made the Saudi enemies list when he criticized Trump). As he calls the press the enemy of the people, encouraging despots around the world to imprison and murder journalists without American retribution.
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I am clearly not saying that Trump built and sent these bombs. That is the fault entirely of the bomber. But this political environment is entirely the fault of President Trump. Well, Trump and the people that support him. It is no coincidence that racists chant Trump’s name as a they harass people of a darker hue as it elicits a strong feeling of pride in the white supremacists amongst us. And I don’t just mean the frothing MAGA-hat-wearers who cheered on his celebrations of violence in real time. Republican politicians either completely ignored or mildly rebuked his rhetoric while completely caved to his hate to win an election. It’s also the fault of all of those that voted for him. You had a chance to show him and other hate mongers, that incitement of political violence remains unacceptable in America and you failed spectacularly. He faced no electoral punishment for his behaviors and you rewarded with an unexpected victory.
Yesterday, as events unfolded, the President meekly read from a statement prepared by his staff. He did not stand with the former Presidents that had been targeted. But he read, the absolute minimal statement he needed to. And that lasted for less than a day. As political opponents received more packages, he went back to the campaign trail. While he did not aggressively attack as he normally did, he did demonstrate that he doesn’t care. He mocked the idea of his own statement- saying he can be good for awhile. Then this morning he attacked the mainstream media for this situation. Because reporting on Trump’s hateful rhetoric is their fault, for repeating his words and actions. The Press Secretary (who no longer holds daily press briefings) said that it was CNN’s fault for receiving a bomb at their office.
Trump and the Republicans will not unify the country. The entire Republican platform is about fear and hate. They want to encourage the haters to get out to vote. Those that hate blacks, hate Hispanics, hate Muslims, hate immigrants, hate gays, hate trans people, hate liberals and so on. They have always done this. But now their leader actively encourages the violence that follows. Hate crimes surged in 2017 against Jews and Muslims as the White House said nothing. White supremacists feel entitled to march in the streets, even starting a brawl last week in NYC. The President says nothing, and in fact purposefully describes himself as a nationalist (exactly what those people want).
The president will not change. We must rebuke him and his rhetoric at the ballot box. We dod so forcefully in 2018 and we must do so again in 2020.
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