Category Archives: National

Requiem for the Soul of the Republican Party

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Today is the United States’ traditional birthday, and pollsters are scrambling to take the patient’s pulse even as we feebly attempt celebration amid record heat induced by unchecked fossil fuel consumption, and try not to notice the cries of refugee mothers and their children separated by “baby jail.”

According to CNBC, which could never be mistaken for a liberal source, less than half (47%) of U.S. adults call themselves “proud to be American.”  That number has dropped 10 percentage points in just the last five years.  

That’s despite our supposedly booming economy and all the “greatness” Donald Trump insists he is bringing back to the nation.

A CNN poll reports that half of all Americans view Donald Trump as a racist.  Is it any coincidence that, also according to recent surveys, close to 90% of Republicans approve of  the policies of Donald Trump while almost no one else does?

One can not resist reflecting on the other half of Americans who apparently do NOT see him as a racist.  In order to subscribe to that position, one must either have never read any of his own comments on brown and black people; or must themselves be racist.  Both possibilities are inescapably damning for the future of the democracy we attempt to celebrate today.

Every single day since and including his inauguration, another demonstration (or three) of his willful ignorance, epic narcism, unabashed dishonesty or pure unadulterated abuse of power has turned the nightly news into a spectacle not for the faint of heart.

Even today, as the Senate Intelligence Committee finally delivered its verdict in agreement with all of the nations intelligence agencies, that Putin’s Russia did indeed interfere in the 2016 election for the purposes of getting Donald Trump elected; Republicans, from Mitch McConnell on down to the last man standing, are doing all they can to avoid acknowledging the truth.

Such a demonstration of unquestioning allegiance to a complete scoundrel like Donald Trump pretty much confirms for me that they share all of his most odious positions, and that includes racism. 

He’s their sick puppy; whether he plots to invade Venezuela, sleeps with our enemies, chokes our allies, maintains the most corrupt and incompetent cabinet in recent history, and ultimately destroys ten years of economic growth; he is aided and abetted by the party of Lincoln.  Now isn’t that the greatest irony?

Let it henceforth be agreed that the Republican party is not only the party of Baby Snatchers and liars, but it is also the party of racists.  Sorry, Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and John McCain.  I appreciate your heroic efforts to save the soul of your party, but if you lie down with dogs, you’re going to wake up scratching.

Happy Fourth of July. 

It is the Fourth of July so go ahead and vote!*

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uncletellsyou

Well, no getting away from it, today is the Fourth of July, actually Independence Day. John Adams said about the day, “It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent” in his well known July 3rd 1776 letter to his wife Abigail.

There’s nothing wrong with a little “pomp and parade” — if used in moderation. But this year, Donald Trump and the GOP are raining on our 4th of July parade by, it seems, shredding every norm in the country, separating immigrant families and making it harder for people to vote.

So it is worth running the tweet below from David Hogg, a Parkland School shooting gun control activist up the flag pole before the “shews and bonfires” begin.

hoggvotequote

*Early voting in the party primaries has begun in advance of the primary polling date of August 14.

Democrats: Framing is Everything.

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I am concerned that the language being used by some Democrats to advocate for reform of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) division of Homeland Security is only going to undermine party unity and messaging in the 2018 election cycle.

We’ve done this before and it did not serve us well.  We allowed the other side to brand themselves “Right to Life” while branding us as “Pro-Abortion.”  The far more accurate descriptor, “Pro-choice,” fell by the wayside in the war of words and we continue to allow them to represent us as baby killers, while we defend our moral high ground with perfectly sound arguments about individual liberty and responsibility that get drowned out by the simple poisonous messaging that the Right does so much better than we, who place a high premium on truth and tolerance.

Now, in the understandable outrage felt by decent folks in the face of Donald Trump’s grotesque reign of incompetence and baby-snatching, we are once again in danger of losing the messaging war by reaching for a bigger and more empathetically distant target than we should be immediately addressing.

Yes, ICE is a badly flawed remnant of post 9/11 planning panic that was allowed to fester and grow its mission even under Obama.  It has created self-justifying enforcement redundancies,  and even un-American over-reach practices that should be dismantled in short order.

But we have to regain some control in Congress to have any hope of affecting beneficial change; and loudly calling for the “elimination of ICE” is unlikely to help us get there.

It’s a negative message that allows unprincipled Republicans to cynically charge that Democrats want to foster lawlessness.  

Whenever we rest on a negative message without providing the positive policy alternative, the Republicans are only too happy to leap into the breach and define a sinister significance  to the Democrats’ position.

T250px-Statue_of_Liberty_7his will never do.

Democrats must insist that their leaders get a better grip on messaging and use more constructive language.  Don’t say “Abolish ICE” and let them finish the sentence.  Talk about “reforming” the institution and remodeling the Homeland Security mission as a whole into something that more closely reflects our traditional American values concerning immigrants, who have been the lifeblood of our young and upwardly mobile nation.

By all means, keep elimination of ICE in mind as the ultimate goal, but don’t use that as your stand alone message.

We have much better immigration messages available, and we need look no further than the Statue of Liberty for the right language.

 

President of the United States: Baby-Snatcher-in-Chief

local/regional, National, Uncategorized,

Nothing Donald Trump does comes as a complete surprise anymore.  The more odious the things he said on the campaign trail, the more likely it has become that he will, sooner or later, hand down policy edicts as President that make those outrageous statements pale by comparison.  I am convinced that his early quip about shooting someone on Fifth Avenue and getting away with it was not merely a throw-away line.

So, no surprise there…

What still totally takes my breath away are the polls describing a malevolent turn to the Republican party as a whole, and the complicity of its surviving elite.  I call them “surviving elite” because a number of that elite have seen the writing on the border wall, folded their tents and stolen silently into the night.  Some, like John McCain, have not been so silent.

The defections only seem to strengthen Trump’s cult-like hold over the so-called “Grand Old Party.”

Last night, Kate Larose, candidate for the Vermont House from St. Albans held a campaign launch in the Bliss Ballroom of the Franklin County Museum.  Everyone was welcome, including the kids for whom there was a mountain of empty cardboard boxes and an invitation to build their own town.  Pizza, salad and ice cream sundaes were served up on a side-table.

Even though I know that Kate is running as a Democrat/Progressive, there was no specific reference to political party and the theme of the evening was our community: what we like about it and how we hope that it will improve.

I’m sure that this was a deliberate effort to counter the poisonous vapor of national politics wafting our way from the south, and refocus voters on local/regional concerns.

I commend Kate and the other gathered optimists who can see a future of harmony worth fighting for.  I am grateful for their positive fervor.

I once felt exactly as they do and wish I did still.

This year, I will volunteer to man the phones for Democratic/Progressive candidates and contribute what I can to each campaign, as I always have.  Not to do so would be inexcusable, I know.  

But I will do so without much hope for the future of our fragile greater democracy.

I like to think that local Republicans, my neighbors, could not possibly support the Fascistic inclinations and pure mean-spiritedness of Donald Trump, but those polls have forced me to look at them in a troubling new light.  While we always differed on matters of policy, I never doubted that they were good people with whom I shared most overarching values.  

That certain knowledge always made participating in the political process a pleasure.  Win or lose, It felt good to be part of something greater than myself, and I always came away with confidence in the overarching better nature of the “system.”

Not anymore.

Donald Trump has violated nearly every civil and moral norm of American society; has never accepted responsibility for any of the evil he has unleashed on that civil society; lies uncontrollably;  indulges his personal vanity in the most grotesque manner; enriches himself and his family, whenever possible, at everyone else’s expense; and has cynically undertaken a personal assault on the constitution, the like of which we’ve never seen before.

Anyone who excuses or enables this devil is not my neighbor, nor my countryman.  This is what constitutional crisis looks like.

If we survive this period of infamy, somehow reclaiming our democracy from the brink of oblivion,  we must be prepared to eliminate private funding from elections, reign-in influence by lobbyists, clearly define legal parameters to limit the ultimate power of the presidency, and seriously question the legitimacy of the two party system.   We will also have a heap of fence-mending to do with our traditional international allies: “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa…”

Failing rigorous commitment to reform, we will justly assume our place on the dustheap of fallen empires throughout the ages.

Yes, hired actors attended NOLA rate payer meetings

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Hey, guess what energy company with a Vermont connection hired actors to attend and disrupt a series of New Orleans city council meetings on the company’s new gas-powered generating plant and electric rates?  Yes, Entergy,  (soon-to-be former) owner of Vermont Yankee – the  decommissioned nuclear power plant – hired “rent-a-crowd” actors supplied by a company based in Los Angeles. And it was a special performance directed to support the fossil fuel power supplier: One of the demonstrators, Keith Keough, said he was paid to clap, “every time someone said something against wind and solar power.” 

Poynter.com reports on the investigation done by The Lens, a non-profit investigative organization. Poynter.com makes clear the last thing they want to do is give oxygen to conspiracy nuts and hoaxsters who claim mass shootings and terrorist attacks are the work of crisis actors and “fake flag” operations. (And contrary to the beliefs of right-wing internet conspiracy nuts, factcheck.org shows there were no paid “crisis actors” among the Parkland shooting high school demonstrators.)

But in New Orleans, paid actors disrupted a city council vote that will affect every person in that community who pays an electric bill. […] Lens reporter Michael Isaac Stein writes. “They were paid $60 each time they wore the orange shirts to meetings in October and February. Some got $200 for a ‘speaking role,’ which required them to deliver a pre-written speech, according to interviews with the actors and screenshots of Facebook messages provided to The Lens.”

inflatablesupporters3

Several rent-a-crowd companies here and overseas are identified in the article. One company executive draws a line at supplying a crowd for hate groups. But reportedly rented crowds are often hired to “swarm people like paparazzi in order to make people feel good to give them the celebrity experience.”

We now know, but always suspected, Vermont Yankee’s owner Entergy to be the kind of corporation that would resort to hiring supporters and hacks to its cause, but what kind of public figure would be so insecure as to hire an “adoring” crowd?

Oh, wait we know that too: Donald Trump, of course. In January 2017 the FEC concluded, after he denied it, that Trump paid actors to attend his 2016 campaign launch.

Well, we always knew that Entergy couldn’t be trusted to deal in an up-front, honest, and straightforward manner. This is just a reminder: Let the state and the buyer beware! And pay no heed to that crowd applauding the deal – some of them could be actors, you know.

Alabama Congressman: “…less space in those oceans because the bottom is moving up”

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“Sponges grow in the ocean. That just kills me. I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be if that didn’t happen.” So said comedian Steve Wright, who as most people can tell was joking!

GOP climate change denier  Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks (GOP Tea Party) was not joking when in a Congressional committee he  expressed his skepticism that ocean levels were rising due to human activities — in terms similar to those of comedian Steve Wright. A jackass

Said Alabama’s finest about rising ocean levels due to warming temperature and ice melt: “What about erosion?” Brooks offered during the exchange. He added: “Every time you have that soil or rock, whatever it is, that is deposited into the seas, that forces the sea levels to rise because now you’ve got less space in those oceans because the bottom is moving up.”

There was speculation Brooks might again try to run for one of Alabama’s US Senate seats. Should he do so and win, the bottom would truly be moving up. But it is evident the level of the US House will never move up if it remains filled with GOP tea party jackasses like Alabama’s Mo Brooks.

Winter sports advocates target politicians on climate change issue

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Governor Scott’s blue sky comments late last year about how he believes Vermont is a sort of climate change “Mecca” came to mind when I read about a climate activist group called Protect Our Winters(POW) a national group made up of winter sports enthusiasts, resorts and outdoor gear retailers. The ten-year-old organization based in the Western US has formed a political wing that, according to McClatchey.com, will in 2018, be: “targeting politicians to take seriously the threat of climate change, and working to vote them out of office if they don’t.”

In 2018 POW will be concentrating their effort on gubernatorial and congressional races in the west but they plan to expand educational outreaches in the Eastern states such as Vermont. Organizers note: “[…] places with large snow-sports industries and tourism economies that depend on snow and winter […] have constituencies in those states who really care about climate change and where it is crucial to elect climate-friendly officials.”

Vermont.gov notes the trend toward a snow challenged future: Changes in precipitation patterns and seasonal average temperatures are altering Vermont’s normally snowy winter landscape. In addition to shorter lake ice over and rising minimum temperatures, the number of days each year with snow on the ground is also diminishing. Vermont’s winter sports industry did have a good season in 2017-2018, but they are heavily relying  on costly snow-making equipment  (with the state having subsidized up to $5 million worth of rebates on nearly 2,400 energy-efficient snow guns in 2014) and were very lucky with several well-timed storms.

Vermont.gov chart
Vermont.gov chart

For voters, concern over the effects of climate change is not a party-line issue. For Protect Our Winters, the good news is that Republican millennials tend to be more worried about a warming planet than other Republicans, and young people in general are more politically engaged than they were in recent elections according to Yale University research scientist Anthony Leiserowitz, who has analyzed public opinion on climate change for a decade.

It’s snow secret: warmer winters, less snow and maybe a little more heat on the way should wake up anyone who has deceived themselves into thinking Vermont can be an environmental “Mecca” magically isolated from climate change challenges.

Simply Donald Trump and a good razor*

National,

You may ask yourself, “Where is that beautiful United States?”

And you may ask yourself, “Am I right? Am I wrong?”

And you may say to yourself, “My God! What have they done?”**

Or… you may ask: What makes Donald Trump run — other than junk food and golf ?

John Stoehr argues in washingtonmonthly.com that focusing on the trauma of globalization, rise in authoritarianism, and Russian election collusion in order to understand the Trump presidency may cause us to miss its most obvious feature — corruption and creed.

He’s a wannabe dictator but he could be golfing, not pretending to be responsible with power. My point is about incentives. Putin had good reason for Trump to be president. So did autocrats the world over who are busy undermining liberal democracy in their countries. For them, it’s about power. But for Trump?

Trumpchows

After all is said and done, money. That’s gotta be it. As Bloomberg’s Tim O’Brien noted, it’s no secret the Trump family, after moving into the White House, put a “For Sale” sign on the front lawn. Fortune 500 companies could see that access to the president was simply a matter of decoding the price tags.[…]

My point here is that collusion, treason, white supremacy, political legitimacy — these are major themes that will preoccupy our minds as much as they have dominated our understanding of Donald Trump. But let’s remember the simplest explanation is always the best, that this presidency may be best characterized by corruption.

After all it’s the money and corruption that Robert Mueller’s investigation is locked on to — as if Trump were a mob boss — follow the money trail.  Why not keep it simple?

*That’d be Occam’s Razor .

** Once in a lifetime apologies to Talking Heads

DOJ & DHS Trumpster termites are eating away at American values

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There are termite nibblers in the Trump cabinet. Name any agency and you’ll notice that like termites, Trumpsters are nibbling away at a wide variety of norms and freedoms. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Education may be two of the most obvious — one eating away at scientific standards and the other devouring civil rights enforcement.trumpites

A little out of the limelight, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security are doing their share of nibbling. The Department of Justice is overhauling a standard manual used by federal prosecutors.

 Buzzfeed.com explains that the manual, called the “US Attorneys’ Manual” but referred to as “Main Justice,”  features high-level statements about department policies and priorities as well as practical guidance on every facet of legal work that comes through the department.

And what’s in and out with “Main Justice”?  In:  Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ tough-on-crime policies. Out: A section titled “Need for Free Press and Public Trial.” References to the department’s work on racial gerrymandering are gone. Language about limits on prosecutorial power has been edited down.

The manual’s last version was published in 1997, so under normal circumstances it might seem innocent enough to update it now. But there is nothing normal with Trump and his termite henchmen.

Despite having been in office for over a year Trump has nominated no one to fill the third ranking associate attorney general position at the DOJ. And: The review is taking place while the Justice Department is still missing several Senate-confirmed officials, including heads of the Criminal Division, the Civil Division, the Civil Rights Division, and the Environment and Natural Resources Division. Nominees for those posts are waiting for a final vote in the Senate.

While Jefferson Beauregard Sessions’ DOJ is re-working “Main Justice,” the Department of Homeland Security is chewing away at press freedoms.

From Bloomberg.com: The DHS wants to track more than 290,000 global news sources, including online, print, broadcast, cable, and radio, as well as trade and industry publications, local, national and international outlets, and social media, according to the documents. It also wants the ability to track media coverage in more than 100 languages including Arabic, Chinese, and Russian, with instant translation of articles into English.

One amazing thing here is that the DHS plan drew attention because they put out a request for a private contractor to help. The DHS requested contractor bids to monitor traditional news sources and social media

According to Bloomberg.com, DHS requires that [t]he data to be collected includes a publication’s “sentiment” as well as geographical spread, top posters, languages, momentum, and circulation. No value for the contract was disclosed.

“Services shall provide media comparison tools, design and rebranding tools, communication tools, and the ability to identify top media influencers,” according to the statement.

Sure, the DOJ and DHA are just taking a little nibble here. But it’s worth noting that an average termite colony can eat about one foot of a 2×4 in six months, but certain species of termite can tear through homes at a much faster pace. In eating wood, termites are also making tunnels inside the wood in order to help foster and grow their colonies, each of which contains about 60,000 termites.

Typically, the damage is hidden until it’s too late. Maybe we need some DIY termite eradicators to get to work.

 

VT, NH, ME opt out of regional gun research coalition?

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It looks as if Vermont has not joined a group of northeast states and Puerto Rico that according to CBS/AP recently  have announced they will join together to conduct research into gun violence. As of now participating states are Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Delaware. The goal is for academics and law enforcement officials to collect data in order to supply legislators with accurate information with which to formulate policies to reduce gun violence.

The new consortium announced Wednesday [4/25/18] will bring together researchers from the partnering states and territories […] They’ll analyze different types of gun violence and collect data in the hopes of gathering information policymakers can use to decrease gun violence.

Data on this issue is scarce because at the federal level, since 1996 the gun lobby successfully worked through Congress to prohibit the Centers for Disease Control from using any funds to study gun violence as a public health issue. This prohibition was altered in the latest budget, but left without funding, researchers are skeptical any serious changes are coming soon.

 In our neck of the woods you’ll notice that along with Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire have not joined the group. Live free and die New Hampshire sitting this out one may not be particularly surprising, and as for Maine, well you know Governor LePage. oddonesout

However, Governor Scott’s absence is a little puzzling. As we all know, Scott made headlines by his generally well-received shift from opposing to supporting some limited gun control measures. Shortly after that change Scott was unanimously elected to serve as chair of the bipartisan Coalition of Northeastern Governors (CONEG). For those who may not know what CONEG does, there’s this from their website:  CONEG is a forum through which the Governors and their senior advisors keep abreast of national and regional policy and program initiatives important to the economic, environmental, energy and social well-being of the Northeast.  CONEG works with the governors and their staff and policy advisors to examine current and emerging regional issues, develop effective solutions, and undertake cooperative actions that benefit the individual state and the region.

Governor Scott often speaks about the desirability of state-to-state regional co-operation on environmental and healthcare issues. I wonder if sooner or later as head of CONEG he will have to come around to support the nation’s first consortium to conduct gun violence research and recommend policy changes. But for now Governor Scott seems to be keeping Vermont among the odd ones out.