Trump guilty...again

For an historic second time, Donald trump has been impeached by the House of Representatives.  This time for "'incitement of insurrection' for his role in last week's deadly Capitol riot", here quoting CNN. 
Ten (10) Republican Congresspersons voted, along with the Democrats, to impeach trump, including Washington's 3rd CD Congresswoman, Jaime Herrera Beutler.  Hmm.  What political device is she playing with now?

The Senate via McConnell has opted to take up the issue of trump's punishment after the Biden inauguration.  Depending on the timing, but likely, the Senate at that time will be comprised of 50 Dems and 50 R's with the two new Georgia Senators, Ossoff and Warnock, sworn in, and with Sen Chuck Schumer steering the boat.  It will be after trump's term is over, but still could result in a vote to prevent him from ever holding office again.

A deafness in the land

The Columbian Editor in Chief Greg Jayne summarizes the blindness, deafness, cultism, or whatever that trump supporters  have.  They choose not to believe judges, lawmakers, numbers or anything that says trump lost the election; because he says so.  Whether it's trump university, trump steaks, trump airlines or trump elections, it's a scam, sham, grift, and a lie.  It's strictly to serve his ego and his pocketbook. 
The editorial on Sun 01/10/21 summarizes the problems, the contrast and the state of denial in a jocular manner.  Enjoy the piece - LINK.

Vicki Kraft, the State Representative in the 17th LD, is similarly bamboozled and defends the indefensible.  Read her remarks and answers to questions that were published in "All politics is local" in the Columbian - LINK.

UPDATE 01/13/21 - The Columbian today lambasted Vicki Kraft for her "divisive anti-American views that undermine our democracy", and called for her resignation.  Nice work when a reporter gets an inappropriate and seditious person like Kraft to fully reveal her unsuitable viewpoints - LINK.

Un - @%^$ - believable

Thu 7 Dec 2021.  Yesterday was Wednesday January 60, 2021 and it was memorable.  So much happened!
- It began with trump addressing a mob of trump supporters.  The location was the Ellipse , between the White House and the Washington Monument.  There he and Donald Jr and Rudy Giuliani incited the mob to march down the National Mall and storm the Capitol.  This was supposedly to buoy Republican spirit in the Capitol where the process of confirming the States' Electoral College votes by joint Congress was occurring.  That process is the final confirmation of the Biden victory.
- About the same time, Jon Osoff was proclaimed the winner of a Georgia Senate seat and, with Tuesday night's victory of Reverend Warnock over Loeffler,  clinched the Democrats' control over the Senate.  That provided a 50-50 parity in membership with a deciding vote provided by the new Senate president Vice-President Kamala Harris forcing Democratic Party dominance.
- The mob marched down the Mall, overwhelmed the Capitol police, perhaps with a little police nod of assistance and stormed the Capitol breaking doors and windows and seating themselves in the Senate leader's and House Leader's chairs.
- After about 2 hours, the insurrectionists were driven out of the building by DC police and VA National Guard.
- The Senate and House leaders of both Parties decided to not allow the democratic processes to stop and, after safety was established, reconvened the hearings at 8:00 PM to confirm the Electoral College results.  Objections to the acceptance of States' results as a ploy to support trump's baseless election fraud and victory claims did occur but in a reduced quantity due to the alarm and disgust raised by the trump-incited dangerous insurrection that had just happened.
- About 4:00 AM the result was finalized without upset by Vice-President Pence as president of the Senate, and the Biden/Harris win was declared accepted by Congress.
Whew!

Repercussions include:
- Investigation as to why the police presence and response was so slow.  The comparison being made is to BLM marches where police intervention has been swift and even severe.
- A call to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove the President now.
- A call for trump's impeachment.
- Multiple White House staff resignations including the Chief of Staff of first lady Melania.
- Open threats for muskets in the future by trump supporters.
- Continued denouncement of the election by trump and declaration of his victory.
- A statement by trump that a peaceful transfer of power will take place on January 20 when the inauguration occurs.

trump has no public events today - he's golfing...again

Below is a screen shot from MSNBC on 12/27/20 at ~15:30.  He cares nothing about the country or its people.

And tomorrow at midnight the federal government shutdown looms.  How will that be prevented?  The Government shutdown, i.e., government funding bill, and the COVID-19 relief passed by the Congress are combined in one bill sitting on trump's desk.  What's the game?  Punish the Congress?  Punish the citizens?  Display of power?  Whatever it is, it's the mean, nasty, and totally unnecessary action of a petulant 2-year old.

Update 12/28/20 - OK.  He signed the bill.  Power play delay.  No shutdown and minimal COVID-19 relief will go out.  But he waited long enough that a bunch of people will lose 1 week's unemployment.  That can be everything when you're at the end of your string.

He's golfing again today.  Have you seen the daily plan on the White House Schedule (Google 'WH Schedule')?  The same statement appears daily: "During the Holiday season, President Trump will continue to work tirelessly for the American People.  His schedule includes many meetings and calls".  Jeez.

Above is a TV screen shot from MSNBC on 12/27/20.  He cares nothing about the country and its people.

trump Chaos continues

The pundits say that trump came into office in a wave of chaos and he's certainly leaving in chaotic fashion.  He is pathologically focussed on his phony claims of election fraud and lawsuits and schemes to stay in office, and spitting on democracy and all it means.  He wants credit for the vaccines' availability, but falls short of distributing it, and thousands of Americans are still dying every day unrelentlessly.  He hardly speaks of the disease.  He is not interested in the disease.  It brings him nothing.  He doesn't really know what to do about it and will not use experts to do it. 

Now the Democrats and Republicans in House and Senate have finally hammered out a compromise bill to provide COVID-19 relief to the citizens and keep the federal government operating.  It was a long time coming - many months - and it is not perfect, especially wherein it offers each person below $75,000 income a cash amount of only $600.  But it was finally done and voted in by the bicameral Congress before unemployment insurance payments ran out and before the government was to shut down for lack of funding.

At this critical time, trump, in a fit of petulance, has rejected the dual bull verbally saying the cash to citizens ought to be $2000 instead of $600; an amount the Democrats had wanted all along.  After this outburst and roadblock, the Democrats said, "OK, let's do that!", but the Rs have said no, they are staying with the $600 amount.  trump may sign the bill or he may veto the bill, or he may "pocket veto" the bill.  A pocket veto occurs when a bill is sent to the president but lays idle for 10 days and Congress ends its session, thus providing a silent, tacit, but firm veto by default.  That is the most difficult situation becaise the new Congress would have to start over.

So trump has thrown the country and his party into turmoil, and the citizens without jobs or support into severe financial woes of eviction, loss of their business or other serious traumas. 

trump doesn't care about the citizens and proves it regularly.  He has promoted so-called "herd immunity" recently by encouraging bad behavior that has let the disease run rampant to the extent that hospitals are at the breaking point for equipemnt and staff.  Our disease rate is the highest in the world, becuase our response is so outright bad.  Also, there is an inexplicable lag in providing the vaccines to the public.  At today's rate of manufacture and distribution, it could be the end of 2021 before the 70-75% of Americans are vaccinated and provide herd immunity.   Double down with trumps monkey wrench into the relief bill/government funding and you have clarity on the total disdain the man has for anyone but himself.

An article by AP writers summarizing the terrible situation and the terrible optics is linked here from the front page of The Columbian - LINK

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

trump gives up all pretense

When he could be doing something for the country and its citizens, he's playing golf - LINK. 
He skipped the G20 World Summit concerning the pandemic and went to play golf.
Today he continued unjustly to try to undo the election results.  Then he went to play golf. 
Today a new record for COVID-19 cases and recent deaths occurred.  And the president-who-wants-to-be dictator went to play golf. 
He cares nothing for people, or country, or the law, or what is right  and ethical.  He went to play golf, and there are reports he cheats at that.  Of course. 

Dying and disbelieving

During Spring break, there were college students who refused to isolate and contracted the novel coronavirus.  An article about one such person quoted them to the effct that they hadn't believed the existence or severity of the virus, but having caught it and suffered through it they believed now it is indeed awful. 

It seems there are others who, on their deathbeds with COVID-19, still refuse to believe they are dying of the novel coronavirus because they continue to believe it never existed.  This is documented in an oped by Leaonard Pitts of the Miami Herald - LINK - and is hard to understand.  Why wouldn't a person believe there is a pandemic sweeping the globe and infecting tens of millions and killing well over a million?  It seems there are limits to what the human brain can absorb apparently and when that point is reached denial sets in and alternate theories take hold that are acceptable to the given mind.  Thus there are those, many actually, who deny evolution and opt for creationism, or believe in a Flat Earth, or simply deny COVID-19.  It's hard to fathom but it seems to work that way.  People believe what they want to believe.   They even believe trump is good for them.  He's not.

Trump tears US apart

Trump is not just the worst president in modern history - he is the most devisive.  He has torn apart so much of tyhe country's democracy and instilled fear into people without reason and raised anger levels to promote hatred and racism.  He only does what's good for himself.  The novel coronavirus is raging all over the country in record-breaking fashion (about 200,00 new cases and about 2000 deaths yesterday, 11/20/20) and he installs radiologist Atlas as the pandemic czar, a man who encourages herd immunity by having 60-70% percent of the poplulation contract the virus.  Running the numbers shows 60% of 330 million people is 198 million people who will test positive, of which at least 1% will die, or about 1.7 million more people will die.  Hospitals and mortuaries are maxxed out now.  Sustaining or increasing the mortality numbers will result in people dying in the street.  Trump doesn't care.  Obviously.  He doesn't care a fig about anybody but himself and the cultists who blindly support him are not of concern to him either.  He only wants their blind adoration to pump up his ego.

Hre's an oped by Catherine Rampell of The Washington Post from November 12, 2020 that summarizes some of trumps degradation of the US and a bouying sense that President-elect Joe Biden will reverse many of our current problems - LINK.

Trump priorities very obvious...and seriously flawed

Trump refutes the election results [he lost], while record numbers of Americans contract the COVID-19 novel coronavirus and and hospitals all over are full of critically ill patients.    He had the audacity to say  recently, "COVID, COVID, COVID", and dismiss it as a campaign ploy to make him look bad and that it would not be heard of after Election Day.  What an unbelieveable, lying direction to take this country toward.

Trump insists he won the election and there was fraud.  It was he that appointed Dejoy to stifle the US Postal Service and lay waste the vote-by-mail effort.  And the vote-by-mail effort was caused by trumps absolute failure to act against the virus and let it rage over the country.

Trump does not care about this country.  Trump does not care about any of its people.  Trump cares about winning for himself so he can keep flying around the country at the taxpayers expense and putting up droves of staff and secret service in his hotels and golf holdings. Might as well mention keeping his family in positions of power where they  make money at taxpayer expense.  It's only what's in it for donald.  Absolutely nothing more.  Given his choice, he would turn the country in his own dictatorship where he could reign and rule without any constraint.

Witness trumps denial of Biden to access security briefings.  These briefings are normal, safe protocol to minimze exposure of the countrywhile power is transitioned between presidents.  But it's not happening and America has exposure. 

Now trump has rpleaced top figures in the Defense Department with trump loyalists.  There is reason to suspect that he has expectations of using the military to stay in office.  What an unimaginable thought.

The Republican Senate supporters of Trump are mute or talking in his favor.  But the expectation is that once trump is gone, they will once again have a better understanding of their oath as senators and begin to put country over party.  One or two senators have come forth with obections about hiscurrent childish behavior that does nothing but stroke his ego and keep his base frenzied.

Perhaps the scariest element to the trump era is the number of people who support him.  There is a change happening in this country, and it's not for the better.  Nationalism, populism, xenophobia, racism, wealth disparity, and misogyny are all on the rise and all are against the greatest principles of this country.

Voting Recommendations - Click Here

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Trump "anyway".  Wha?

Spokane's newspaper endorsed trump; the "bully" and "bigot" and "wretched human being", "anyway".  This is a slight insight into some trump supporters as the column's author says, " he's "been curious for years though about how it is that so many party elites and establishment types seem so compliant to his worst excesses."  Now we can see some of it.  They think trump's good for business.  They like his policies, but dislike the man.  There's a morality being ignored there.  Read the piece - LINK.

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Electoral College needs change

It has become evident that the Electoral College is not useful.  We need to elect the highest office by the popular vote rather that by  battleground states.  It is not useful to have states with low populations dictate what the selection of president.  Either make the number of Electoral votes in a state representative of the actual population of do away with the Electoral Vote and use the popular vote.  In no other election do we use anything but the popular vote.  A democracy employs majority voting, and our democracy uses that principal in every election except that for president.

The inception of the Electoral College and its placement in the US Constitution was to placate the Southern states and slavery (Link).  Now 1 person, 1 vote should prevail. 

The Columbian Editor Greg Jayne has some fine comments on the matter - LINK.

Two more links about changing the Electoral College - LINK1, and - LINK2.

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Vote is Safe here.

The system for vote collection and vote tabulating is a very safe one. here in Clark County.  The computer systems that do the tabulating are checked and rechecked, and ultimately test by a citizen's group comprised of people from both political parties.  All during the opening of ballot envelopes by election workers, there are citizens from the parties observing the process.  If a person votes twice, by accident or on purpose, that will be captured and only one ballot will be counted.  There is a video on the Election website - LINK - that demonstrates much of this secure process.  Problem ballots are reviewed in front of a bipartisan committee as well.  It is a thorough and well practiced system.
Other states are having problems being allowed to count ballots postmarked by 8:00 PM Election Day but arriving after Election Day.  Such is not the case here.  If you mail your ballot and it is postmarked prior to 8:00 PM Election Day, it will be counted.  There is a descriptive editorial in Sunday's (11/01/20) The Columbian - LINK.

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Today is a Good Day to VOTE

Yes, Vote Today!  [Recommendations for whom at the end of this article]

BALLOTS and BALLOT PLAN
Some ballots arrived on Saturday.  If you don't have yours on Monday, call Elections at 564-397-2345.
If you haven't registered, go to VoteWA.gov to register until October 26.  After that go in person to Elections Office, 1408 Franklin St Vancouver, WA - MAP. 
It's unlikely that there will be delays in voting or snafus in returning ballots in Washington because we have done all mail-in voting since 2005 with great success, i.e., no fraud.
But , it will behoove us to vote early and return our ballots as early as possible to avoid any possible glitches.  So make a VOTING PLAN.
Voting Plan Elements
   Have Ballot Ready
   Look Over Ballot for mechanism (Security Sleeve) and candidates
   Check your Voter's Pamphlet for procedures, assistance, and candidate information
   Mark your Ballot
   Sign your Ballot
   Secure your Ballot in the Security Sleeve and self-addressed pre-stamped envelope
   Place Ballot in mailbox, or take to nearest Red Drop Box.   Nearest drop box to you found at WAVotes.

You have a ballot, or soon will, so get it open along with the Voter's Pamphlet and see what's out there.  Lots of races, but there's lots of help.  The Columbian makes picks, the Democrats make picks, the Democratic Women make picks, and there's a list of ballot choices below.

DROP BOXES
To return your ballot, put it in the mailbox - it's already stamped.  Or take it to one of 22 convenient Red Ballot Drop Boxes throughout Clark County.
Red Ballot Drop-off Boxes are at the following locations:

NOW - Twenty Two convenient Drop Box locations!
Amboy Middle School - 22115 NE Chelatchie Road, Amboy (west parking lot)
Battle Ground City Hall parking lot - 109 SW 1st Street, Battle Ground
Brush Prairie Post Office - 12012 NE 150th Circle, Brush Prairie
Camas – The Heights Learning Center - 4600 NE Garfield Street, Camas (south parking lot)
Camas Post Office Downtown - 440 NE 5th Avenue, Camas
Hockinson Middle School (old school) - 15916 NE 182nd Avenue, Brush Prairie (parking lot)
La Center - 1001 E 4th Street, La Center (west end of parking lot)
Ridgefield - Pioneer St. exit, east of I-5, at the end of North 1st Circle, in the middle of the cul-de-sac
Ridgefield School District Administrative Office - 510 Pioneer Street, Ridgefield (walk-up only)
Washougal Library - 1661 C Street, Washougal (walk-up only)
Yacolt Primary School - 507 W Yacolt Road, Yacolt (south parking lot)

Vancouver locations:
Clark College - 1933 Fort Vancouver Way (by Penguin Bldg. near flag pole, walk-up only)
Clark Public Utilities Operations Center - 8600 NE 117th Avenue, Vancouver (southeast parking lot)
Downtown Vancouver - West 14th & Esther Streets, Vancouver
Fisher’s Landing Transit Center - 3510 SE 164th Avenue, Vancouver
Hazel Dell - 99th Street Transit Center - 9700 NE 7th Avenue, Vancouver
Pioneer Elementary / Frontier Middle School Parking Lot - 7600 NE 166th Avenue, Vancouver (parking lot between the two schools
Shahala Middle School - 601 SE 192nd Avenue, Vancouver
Thomas Jefferson Middle School - 3000 NW 119th Street, Vancouver (parking lot)
USPS Post Office Cascade Park - 13651 NE 4th Street, Vancouver
Vancouver Mall Parking Lot – SE of Macy's near the C-Tran Vine Station
WSU-Vancouver - 14204 NE Salmon Creek Rd (WSU Entrance Road entering from NE Salmon Creek Ave, turn right at the first street into the south parking lot)  

Our County has gone to great lengths to make it easy to return your ballot!
Deposit your balot in the Box yourself.  Do not entrust it to anyone.  Exception may include a housebouind person who gives it to a relative.
The above list is from the Clark County website ClarkVotes or www.clark.wa.gov. 

The same list is available from WAVOTE, and after your enter your First and Last names and your Date of Birth, you are given Candidate, Ballot and Ballot drop off information as follows:

WAVote.Gov Information
Current Election
  Voter's Guide
  Voting Centers [Drop Boxes by distance from you and with Map]
My Ballot
  Online Ballot
  Ballot Status
  Voter Registration
My Elected Officals
Who Filed?
My Notices
Voting History
Logout
 This is a tremendously valuable information center.  Notice it tells you the status of your ballot.

WHO YOU MIGHT VOTE FOR:
(In order of the Voter's Pamphlet)

Referendum 90 [Sex Ed] - Yes
Advisory Votes 32, 323, 34, 35 - Maintained
Engrossed Senate Jioint Re 8212 - Approved
President/Vice President - Biden/ Harris
3rd CD Rep - Carolyn Long
Governor - Jay Inslee
Lieutentant Governor - Denny Heck
Secretary of State - Gael Tarleton
State Treasurer - Mike Pellicciotti
State Auditor - Pat McCarthy
State Attorney General - Bob Ferguson
State Commissioner of Public Lands - Hilary Franz
Sopt. of Public Instruction - Chris Reykdal
Insurance Commissioner - Mike Kriedler
17th LD Senator - Daniel Smith
17th LD State Rep - Tanisha Harris
18th LD State Senator - Rick Bell
18th LD State Rep - Kassandra Bessert
18th LD State Rep - Donna Sinclair
49th LD State Senator - Annette Cleveland
49th State Rep - Sharon Wylie
49th State Rep - Monica Stonier
State Supreme Court Justice Pos 3 - Raquel Montoya-Lewis
State Supreme Court Justice Pos 6 - G. Helen Whitener
Clark County Councilor No. 3 - Jesse james
Clark County Councilor No. 4 - Matt Little
Charter Review Commissioner At-Large 1 - Doug Lasher
Charter Review Commissioner At-Large 2 - Eric Holt
Charter Review Commissioner At- Large 3 - Mike Dalesandro
Charter Review Commissioner District 1 Pos 1 - Michael Martin
Charter Review Commissioner District 1 Pos 2 - Kim Harless
Charter Review Commissioner District 1 Pos 2 - Eric LaBrant
Charter Review Commissioner District 2 Pos 1 - Chuck Green
Charter Review Commissioner District 2 Pos 2 - Jackie Lane
Charter Review Commissioner District 2 Pos 3 - Bridget McLeman
Charter Review Commissioner District 3 Pos 1 - Maureen Winningham
Charter Review Commissioner District 3 Pos 2- Terri Niles
Charter Review Commissioner District 3 Pos 3 - Jeff Angelo
Charter Review Commissioner District 4 Pos 1 - Thomas Hernandez
Charter Review Commissioner District 4 Pos 2 - John Latta
Charter Review Commissioner District 4 Pos 3 - Not Liz Pike
Clark Public Utilities - Jane Van Dyke
Washougal Prop 9 - No
Washougal Prop 10 - Yes

NOW -
Make a Voting Plan!
Execute the Plan!

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Scary person

While dropping lit for Tanisha Harris (esteemed 17th LD State Rep candidate), Bethany Rivard (whose worthy husband, Daniel Smith, is running for 17th LD State Senator) was confronted, accosted, opposed by an unidentified individual who called her names like "nazi" and "christian-hating bigot".  It was a scary 6 minutes and Bethany videoed it.  You can see the twisted and obscure 'logic' used by this individual in the facebook post - LINK. 
This trump endorsing individual seems to  feel that the "Black Lives Matter" movement, for which Bethany had a sticker on her car,  is some kind of anti-white statement.  Of course, it is anything but; the BLM movement is pro people of color to finally achieve the equality for blacks that has been promised over and over in this country.  There's an excellent article about the event in The Columbian - LINK.

Some wondrous logic

Ex county Councilor, ex-state representative Tom Mielke (R-18) is running as a write-in for State Senator - against incumbent Ann Rivers (R-18).  So that puts 3 people in the running for the seat - not on the ballot, though because Tom is running as a write-in.  He is funded by his old friend, co-county councilor, and similar-bad-for-the-county pal David Madore.  Other donors are friends of Madore like Ken Fisher, and Clyde Holland.  There's a nice piece in The Columbian about this race in the All Politics is Local category republished Sunday 10/11/20 - LINK. 

Two remarkable conclusions are drawn by Mielke and the local Republican Party.  The first is the local Rs deemed Republican Ann Rivers as not meeting "the standards for being a Republican."  This rather incredible conclusion thus enabled the local R's to transgress their bylaws during the recent Primary Election and endorse John Ley over Ann Rivers.  The bylaws prevent them from endorsing a single R from a multiple Rs in the primary.  In that Primary, John Ley and Ann split the vote, and thus enabled Democrat Rick Bell to succeed over Ley to the General Election against Ann Rivers.

Here's the priceless logic part:  Mielke hopes to either win the General Election or split the R vote between himself and Rivers and cause Democrat Bell to win.  Because, Mielke says, "A moderate Democrat will do a better job than  Ann Rivers." 

There's the plan - Vote for Rick Bell.

Carolyn on her game!

Carolyn Long, erstwhile second-time candidate for 3rd Congressional District Congresswoman, very successfully debated the plastic incumbent, Jaime Beutler.  Carolyn is appealing when she talks about her youth and her family business and what it taught her and her appreciation of labor unions, but today was a look at Carolyn I-am-your-Congresswoman behavior.  She opened by saying her opponent would lie about Carolyn and that set the tone for the listeners' appreciation of anything JHB had to say.  Carolyn will be so effective for all the needs of our seven counties.  See the debate at LINK. 

Reckless!

"Reckless"!  That word has been applied to trumps reaction to the COVID-19 novel coronavirus.  He has downplayed the virus by his own admission to Bob Woodward.  He poo-poo's mask wearing, but now he's in the hospital - at least for the moment - with the very virus he discounts.  He caught the virus through reckless behavior and has exposed others at the White House and on the road by condoning and encouraging bad behavior - simply put : Ignoring the mask. 

Now he's leaving Walter Reed Hospital to quarantine in the White House. His twitter feed just prior to leaving the hospital is that he feels better than he has in 20 years.  This is absolutely the wrong message to send to the populace.  It is not a gentle disease for millions arounfd the world and has killed 201,000 Americans, and is expected to kill another 150,000 by Jan 01.  It is idiotic for trump to falsley pretend the virus is nothing to worry about.  We can never get towards normal life until we control the virus and nothing is being done to bring that control.  Vaccine might be available this year but reasonably will not be generally available until mid-2021.  In the meantime, everyone is at risk to contract the disease, and die from it.  If mask wearing could possibly become the norm, risk would be greatly reduced.  Parenthetically, the euphoria he suggests in his tweet may be brought on by the experimental drugs he has been given.

Trump's current best 'advisor' is a Fox News radiologist that touts "herd Immunity" and trump has stettled on that scheme.  The concept has validity only if one is willing to sicken tens of millions more Americans and kill some two million Americans.  Trump has so thoroughly politicized the non-politcal novel Coronavirus that the six months we've already endured likely will stretch, needlessly, into 12-18 months due to bad behavior, stupid actions, and lack of leadership, while killing tens of thousands more Americans.  Reckless and unnecessary.

And he took off his mask and walked into the White House!

Are you better off than your were 4 years ago?

Where are we?

Lou Brancaccio

Leonard Pitts

Dana Milbank

Keeping up with the flow?  It aint easy.  The latest is, of course, Trump is hospitalized with the novel coronavirus after saying for months how non-existent or minimal it was, and demonstrating how NOT to wear a mask.  Now he has proof masks are necessary and effective; something we've known all along.

Perhaps his infection will demonstrate to the scoffers and hoaxers that the virus is real and masks should be worn, AND that the way to open up the country correctly is for everybody to wear a mask until the virus is controlled.

Why not wear a mask?  After all, we all wear shoes to protect our feet, we wear motorcycle helmets to stave off injury, and m,any vocations, include the use of dust mask, gas masks, gloves, goggles, for painting, roofing, nursing, and on and on.  It's just routine and part of your daily gear.

Several columnists have presented OpEd pieces lately that demonstrate the country is in really bad shape under the non-leadership of trump.
Lou Brancaccio, ex editor of The Columbian, offers a profile of trump voters, and challenges any trump supporter to vote for Biden. LINK.

Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald offers a rather dark, but frighteningly accurate, picture of where we are under trump.  Summarily, we're on the verge of losing our democracy.  LINK.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post starts from trump's insulting debate performance on Tursday and brings us to the dire conclusion that the election and the transition will be messy.  LINK.

Trump's Stark Plan

Here is an ad by The Lincoln Project (LINK), a group comprised of disillusioned Republicans, that states in stark clarity what trump and his supporters are up to.  "Supporters" in particular is a reference to the Senate Republicans who continue to act in an unprincipled manner.  Thge latest of their offenses is the transgression of their own rules on selecting and confirming a Supreme Court Justice late in a presidential term. When you ask yourself, "Why and how can Senate republicans stoop to such aberrant behavior?", you'll have your answer.  LINK to VIDEO

Quiring unmasked

Once again, Clark County Council chair Eileen Quiring O'Brien is way off base on an issue.  She doesn't like sex educatrion in the schools and she doesn't believe there is systemic racism in Clark County.  Yesterday, she reiterated her ignorant postion on masks, saying she'd been told that masks do not help prevent the spread of thew COVID-19 disease.  She argued the point with County Health officer Alan Melnick.  Councilor Medvigy seemed to side with Quiring against Melnick's remarks.  Councilor Blom reported the best science evidence about masks - that they should be worun to prevent spread and to get us to the reopening stage.

Quiring wants guidelines for opening different than those provided by the State government.  No real standards have been offered by her.  She pushes to reopen while advocating and questiuoning accepted means to reduce spread of the virus and thus permit reopening.  Just backwards again.

Medvigy has an opponent this election cycle in the Independant, and worthy, candidate Matt Little.

Carolyn Endorsed!

Carolyn Long, "superior" Democratic challenger to current puppet incumbent 3rd Congressional District Representative, has received two particularly interesting endorsements.  One is from The Columbian who referred to her as superior - LINK , and the other is from current Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden - LINK. 

Wanted:  Jesse James...for County Council

Jesse James is running for Clark County Council District 3*.  The current councilor is Jon Blom.  Jon was outvoted in the primary by the local Rs, and the wife of the local R Chair is running against Jesse. Jesse James is a strong Democrat.  Jesse received a resounding endorsement from The Columbian today (09/18/20) - LINK.

The current Clark County Council has the following members:
Eileen Quiring as Chair (R),
Temple Lentz District 1 (D),
Julie Olson District 2 (R),
Jon Blom District 3 (I),
Gary Medvigy District 4 (R)

Quiring opposes sex education in the schools and does not believe there is systemic racism in Clark County.  The Council is holding "listening sessions" so all members can understand systemic racism in Clark County.  
Medvigy is also running for his seat in November.  His opponent is Matt Little.  Medvigy seems to be cut from the same cloth as Quiring and is endorsed by many far right figures including Jesse James' opponent.
Jon Blom lost out in the primary because the Rs had decided he was not far right enough.

The Columbian said, "voters should be wary about such a concentration of power" when they reviewed the combination of Jesse's opponent, her husband; the Republican Party Chair, and Quiring.  Such a power grab is unacceptable.  Jesse James on the Council will bring the very necessary balance that is required for thoughtful County leadership.

*District 3 is bounded roughly by I-205 on ther West, 192nd Ave on the East, The Columbia River on the South, and NE 99th St on the North. See map below of all 4 districts.

Sierra mag summarizes oil industry demise

The September/October issue of Sierra Magazine has a comprehensive article on the good old oil industry.  LINK to article.   They say oil has been on the skids since at least 2008.  Demand is off.  Air, water, and ground polution awareness is up, and the pandemic has greatly reduced consumption worldwide.  In general, industries are supposed to be aware of their popularity and sales potential well before they approch the peak of their market capability, and start shifting research and production to products that have a real future.  Oil people seem to be stuck in a narrowing groove. 

The article says oil is not a good stock risk nor a good bank loan risk.  There are people and nations that pour billions into supporting the failing oil industry.  Among them: Trump (America), Putin (Russia), and Saudi Arabia (OPEC).  Massive government support is a waste of money.


It seems there will always be a need for fossil fuel and its products.  It is used for so many of the items we use beyond fuel and heating: plastics, solvents, fertilizer, paints, and piping to try and cross section the endemic uses.  But the burning and contribution to pollution is of grave concern.  Global warming is real and is manifested in worse weather and rising temperatures globally and to a deadly level.  The oil industry in the US is diminishing and concentrating in the Permian Basin; 86,000 square miles of West Texas reaching into New Mexico. 

When we recover from the global pandemic, the industry and economic upturns will spur manufacturing and return some demand lost to the coronavirus turndown.  It is advised to be implementing new approaches like Gov Jay Inslee's Freedom From Fossil Fuels program, and local and national green New Deals that promote healthy new directions and jobs for energy production.

Trump pushes fear - Don't fall for it

Trump is pushing fear.  Fear that joe Biden's America will look lawless, for example.  Wait.  What?  It's trump's America that is out of control.  Trump only has the fear tactic to run on because nothing in his first term serves as an accomplishment.  The economy is in tatters.  Unemployment is record high.  Helpful bailout funds are stymied.  The coronoavirus which caused most of the problems is being ignored and mishandled  by trump to the tune of nearly 200,000 Americans dead - the worst of any modern country in the world.   He is scary.  He does have a large cult following many of whom seem to find his "law and order" call great code for white superiority and racism.  Those cult-of-trump followers have drunk the Kool-Aid and are not listening to reason.  They do some scary things - which will only get worse if trump is re-elected.  Do not allow friends and family to get caught up in trump's lies.   The America we are living in is in very tough shape, and that is trump's America.

A great synopsis is provided in today's (Sunday 09/13/20) The Columbian by Editorial manager Greg Jayne.  He sums up the situation nicely demonstrating that trump is the wrong preson for the job.  Be not afraid.  Vote Biden. LINK to Greg's op/ed.

Nobody's missing

From The Seattle Times, by Horsey

Trump and COVID-19

Trump is oft said to be "unwilling or incapable" of controlling the virus that's crippling America.  Before the virus struck, he had disbanded US task forces that were in existence to control epidemic diseases and both keep them off our shores and assist other nations in combatting any disease.  It is well known that those groups did excellent work during the Ebola epidemic in 2014.

When the virus struck, trump waved it off and insisted it would just go away.  As things drastically worsened, he refused to tsake responsibility and foisted the mitigation onto States' Governors.  Without a central, Federal policy, the reaction was scattershot, highly variable, and ineffectual.  The net result was a virtual closing of the country - cruises, airlines, sales of gas, restaurant and small business sales all plummeted.  The current unemployment rate is nearly 20% according to Forbes - LINK.  Some monies were issued to business and workers, but that stipend was allowed to expire while the virus and unemployment still rage.

Now trump acts as if the virus is gone and the economic and unemployemnt problems belong to Joe Biden, insisting that if Biden is elected that violence will continue.  Wait.  What?  The America we live in right now is trump's America.  Re-electing trump is to have more of the same (or worse).  

The basic problem that is holding back America from "opening" is the unbridled COVID-19 virus pandemic.  Until real, centralized steps are taken to protect the citizens no relief can occur.  Trump's current thing seems to lie in gaining "herd Immunity" - having enough of the population suffer through the virus thus providing them with anitbody immunity.  The science says herd immunity requires about 65% of the population to become sick.  At a conservative death rate of 1%, that means 2.13 million people would die in the US.  That is an unthinkable number.  It's needless.  And yet trump puts forth a radiologist, Dr Scott Atlas, to present this theory as if it is the direction to go - LINK. 

Then there is the mythic, magic vaccine that trump has directed the CDC to prepare for issue on November 1, just 2 days before Election Day.  Time will tell about that possibility.  After all it is just a trump campaign promise.

Stay safe...by wearing your mask.

"America is a racist country"

Strong words, and reading them is bound to cause a reaction of one form or another.  Systemic racism exists and is everywhere.  That is true in spite of what Clark County Council Chair Eileen Quiring thinks and says.  Reportedly, the full council has engaged themselves in a learning format, or "listening sessions", where evidence is presented of long-term local racism and discussions are held on what can shape racist thinking and how to correct it.

The evidence that this country is racist is becoming more visible as trump's tenure continues.  He's given up dog whistles for outright support of murdering police and murdering vigilantes.  He has yet to utter the name of jacob Blake, shot seven times in the back by police while being held by his shirt.  Trump supports and engenders racist behavior and violent behavior.  If he is replace in the White House this January, there still will be lingering effects and activities by racist, violent groups who have risen publicly  during the last four years.  It's going to take effort on everyone's part to begin squelching and making unacceptable violent and racist behavior.

Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald recently published a powerful Op/Ed on the state of black peolpe in this country.  It is revealing - LINK.

DNC & RNC

Did you watch?  The Democratic National Convention was a model of technical capability, soothingness, racial thoughtfulness, and telling-it-like-it is about the biggest threat ever to our democracy, donald j. trump.

The Republication National Convention was a hollow travesty.  Virtually everyone who presented lied through their teeth about trump and his activities acting like the man had some compassion or any moral fortitude.  Then they proceeded to trash Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, and all Democrasts in general, with lies about suburbia, taxes, the second amendment, God, and socialism.  It was all fear-based and contained no facts.  In fact, the Republican agenda contains no facts for the next four years.  They failed to submit a platform, instead simply rubber-stamping trump's agenda.  Therein lies a question; what is trump's agenda for a next term?  When called upon to expound on his goals last month, he was unable to verbalize a single one.  Anyone outside The Cult of Trump can see that his plans are to continue to grow his self-worth, self-image, and role as King of America, while shredding the constitution and the legal system, and promoting racism and barring immigrants.  They took every mean thing they are doing and attribted it to Joe Biden and the Democrats.

"Trump declared that 'Joe Biden and his party repeatedly assailed America as a land of racial, economic, and social injustice'" - LINK.  And that is correct.  That is what is worsening in this country. Regarding racial, economic, and social injustice, who has done the most to promote those travesties of democracy?  Why, donald trump, of course.

The RNC pretty much ignored the pandemic, COVID-19, that currently is raging and keeping schools and universities, bars and restaurants, and multiple businesses closed while killing about 1000 Americans each day.  The Rs act like it's over.  They act like it's 2016 and the track record of the last four years of grift, inaction, and violations hasnt't existed.  It is truly amazing.  it only plays to his base, and to some people who just aren't paying attention.

Why then, are people like Bill Mahar or James Carville expessing fear about the election?  Sure, it's conceivable that trump and Barr may illegalize and rig the election, or that trump will reject the results, or refuse to leave the White House (Remember: after January 20, 2021, Nancy Pelosi automatically becomes the president if the outcome is problematic).  The fear is that, 1) Rs are motivated and will turn out ot vote in bigger-that-ever numbers, and 2) that Democrats will neglect their obligation to vote.  Fear #2 is stultifying.  If Dems vote weakly, the opportunity to preserve our countryy would be lost.  Four more years of trump would destroy this democratic republic. 

It's vital that we plan to vote, vote early, and talk about the need to vote with friends and family.  No need for extensive lobbying, pleading, or speeches, although pleading may be a workable resort.  Better, simply ask , "Are you better off than your were four years ago?".

Clark County has now established 20 locations for ballot deposit.  If there are concerns about the mail's efficiency, or if one is just late to vote, there is a bnig red dropbox nearby.  They are as follows:

Ballot deposit locations

If you wish to return your voted ballot in person on or before Election Day take it to:
Clark County Elections Office
1408 Franklin Street, Vancouver
8 am to 5 pm, Monday through Friday
and 7 am to 8 pm on Election Day

Or one of the 20 red permanent ballot drop boxes, available 24 hours a day starting at least 18 days before Election Day:
Drive-up ballot drop boxes make it accessible and convenient!
*NOW - Twenty convenient locations!

Amboy Middle School - 22115 NE Chelatchie Road, Amboy (west parking lot)
Battle Ground City Hall parking lot - 109 SW 1st Street, Battle Ground
Hockinson Middle School (old school) - 15916 NE 182nd Avenue, Brush Prairie (parking lot)
Camas – The Heights Learning Center - 4600 NE Garfield Street, Camas (south parking lot)
Camas Post Office Downtown - 440 NE 5th Avenue, Camas
La Center - 1001 E 4th Street, La Center (west end of parking lot)
Ridgefield - Pioneer St. exit, east of I-5, at the end of North 1st Circle, in the middle of the cul-de-sac
Ridgefield School District Administrative Office - 510 Pioneer Street, Ridgefield (walk-up only)
Washougal Library - 1661 C Street, Washougal (walk-up only)
Yacolt Primary School - 507 W Yacolt Road, Yacolt (south parking lot)

Vancouver locations:

Clark College - 1933 Fort Vancouver Way (by Penguin Bldg. near flag pole, walk-up only)
Clark Public Utilities Operations Center - 8600 NE 117th Avenue, Vancouver (southeast parking lot)
Downtown Vancouver - West 14th & Esther Streets, Vancouver
Fisher’s Landing Transit Center - 3510 SE 164th Avenue, Vancouver
Hazel Dell - 99th Street Transit Center - 9700 NE 7th Avenue, Vancouver
Pioneer Elementary / Frontier Middle School Parking Lot - 7600 NE 166th Avenue, Vancouver (parking lot between the two schools
Shahala Middle School - 601 SE 192nd Avenue, Vancouver
Thomas Jefferson Middle School - 3000 NW 119th Street, Vancouver (parking lot)
Vancouver Mall Parking Lot – SE of Macy's near the C-Tran Vine Station
WSU-Vancouver - 14204 NE Salmon Creek Rd (WSU Entrance Road entering from NE Salmon Creek Ave, turn right at the first street into the south parking lot)  

Projection; a psychological fault

Psychology Today says "Projection is the process of displacing one's feelings onto a different person, animal, or object. ... Unconscious discomfort can lead people to attribute difficult feelings or impulses to someone else to avoid confronting them."

Sound familiar?  Trump does this all the time.  Trump is a bigot so he deflects by calling Hillary Clinton a "bigot".  He does it a ll the time. LINK.

The republican National convention started last night (08/24/20) and was peppered with projection.  Matt Gaetz, Florida congressman, was notable in his use of claiming dictatorial respondses if Biden is elected, when authoritatianism is already happening from the trump adminstration, and will get worse if he is re-elected.

Watch for it.  It's awful to listen to, but likely does influence some susceptible listeners.  It's schoolyard.

Affects & effects

There are some significant effects combined to make trump Trump.  One is the Cult of Trump.  That is the only way to describe his followers, and they are consistent.  Their 35% percent approval rating throughout his tenure has been constant no matter how horrible he is.  LINK.  The link supplies a Vanity Fair article that describes his technique of drawing in the people who become his supporters.  "Such is the intimacy of Trumpism: innuendo and intimation, the wink and the revelation.", says the article.  He calls the Democrats pedophiles, his motto is "make America great [white] again; and is mythic, but the appeal to conspiracy believers is epic.  He has been labelled by supporters "The Great White Hope", and he has called himself "The Chosen One", and they eat it up.  Remember the shoot-someone-on-Fifth-Avenue remark - he can do no wrong to those supporters.  A book was published on October 15, 2019 called , The Cult of Trump: A Leading Cult Expert Explains How the President Uses Mind Control, by Steven Hassan.

But all is not lost.  This year of 2020 seems to have more people paying attention, perhaps as a result of the fatally lame response to the Covid-19 pandemic in this country by the trump administration or just perhaps as an offshoot of having to stay home - all of that results in inspecting the situation and its causes and potential means of mitigation and who is affecting our lives so drastically.  Much has been written on the failure of the administration to affect the spread, severity, and mortality of the disease.  Anyone who has ever thought about not catching their associates cold by avoiding their sneezes has enough experience to understand how to avoid the realityCovid-19.  It is not a "hoax" nor will it "disappear" like a "miracle".  Unfortunately the disease has been politicized by trump to be against Democrats - somehow worsened and overblown by Democrats.  Good grief!

Then we have trumps affect on Republicans.  Remember Eisenhower, a Republican.  It was okay to vote for him for any US voter.  He and the party of Rs were not polarized against the Ds to the extent that they were forcing all the nation's wealth to the top one percent back then.  Eisenhower warned us to beware of the industrial-military complex - good advice - and he is given responsibility for building our highway system crisscrossing the country - a vital piece of infrastructure.  Rs and Ds were not so far apart back then when it came to Country First.

But why is the Senate - the Republican controlled Senate - so stuck in place and adherent to trump's wishes - to the extent that their leader McConnell vowed prior to the impeachment hearing that trump would not be found guilty of anything.  Some of that Cult mentality seems exhibited in few of the R senators like Jim Johnson and Devin Nunes, but the rest?  They seem to be paralyzed by the possibility that if they speak against him, he will tweet out their name with disparagement and they will be affected to the extent that they will lose re-election.  but recently, a few have come to the realization that supporting trump is antithetical to their re-election by their unhappy constituency.  Yet they have not found a voice.  Gee, maybe the Dems can win the Senate this year!

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post offers a recent review of the depths of Republican depravity - LINK.

And can the Dems effect a change?  It seems reasonable to plan for it.  Joe Biden and Kamala Harris represent a real opportunity for the decent government desired by the majority in the polls.  In 9 major recent polls (LINK), Biden is favored over trump by a margin of 4-to-10 percentage points.  But, polls are tricky and opinion is whimsical.  The trump campaign will spew multiple lies and tons of mud on the Biden-Harris pair, and Democrats in general. You may remember the pizzeria shooting in DC proposed to be the sight of Hillary Clinton's purported child sex ring - LINK.  Vigilance is required, and voting.  Yes!  Voting by Democrats must be early because of the USPS slowdown by trump, and Voting must be huge.  Election day immediate overwhelming, indisputable results are vital to making the outcome clean and decisive.  Leonard Pitts cites the hope provided by the recent Democratic Convention.  If you missed it, it was a lulu!  So many luminaries spoke out plainly against trump and described his failure.  Among them, Colin Powell, Michelle Obama, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Kamala Harris.  Hope is here.  Opportunity is here.  If we act on it.  Read Leonard Pitts' optimistic oped at - LINK.

Trump perfection

Trump is the perfect liar.  Virtually everything he says is a lie.  He also perfectly reverses anything bad that he's doing and accuses his accuser of it.  It's called DARVO - ""DARVO refers to a reaction perpetrators of wrong doing, particularly sexual offenders, may display in response to being held accountable for their behavior. DARVO stands for "Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender." The perpetrator or offender may Deny the behavior, Attack the individual doing the confronting, and Reverse the roles of Victim and Offender such that the perpetrator assumes the victim role and turns the true victim -- or the whistle blower -- into an alleged offender. This occurs, for instance, when an actually guilty perpetrator assumes the role of "falsely accused" and attacks the accuser's credibility and blames the accuser of being the perpetrator of a false accusation." from LINK.

Today's (08/08/20) example is accusing Biden of planning to steal the election.  Oh boy!

This is not all he does 'well'.  He also distracts and obfuscates rather well.  Many times one can shrug it off and say it'll get fixed in November, but the coronavirus pandemic that is running out of control in this country is being ignored in the most deadly fashion by trump.  He does not know what to do and continues to say the virus will "go away", and "Open the Schools".  It's inexcusable to be killing over 1000 Americans each day and worse to ignore it.

Dana Milbank takes off after trumps lies and distractions nicely in a recent oped - BELOW:
DANA MILBANK COLUMN
Advance for release Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020, and thereafter
(For Milbank clients and FOR PRINT USE ONLY)

By Dana Milbank

WASHINGTON -- Nearly 5 million COVID-19 cases in the United States. One-hundred fifty-seven thousand dead. Thirty-two million out of work. Tens of millions facing eviction, foreclosure and hunger.
What do we do now?
Simple: We talk about Hillary Clinton's emails!
"During the investigation of Hillary Clinton over her email server, James Comey, the FBI director, had a press conference, as you know, on July 5 where he . . . said 'no reasonable prosecutor' would prosecute that case," Sen. John Cornyn, R-Tex., said at Wednesday's hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee. "Did you know before July 5, 2016, that he was going to do that?" Cornyn asked.
The witness, Sally Yates, a former Obama administration deputy attorney general called before the panel to testify, told Cornyn she had not known.
Cornyn pressed on. "When he reopened the case after Anthony Weiner's computer was looked at, did you know he was going to reopen the case beforehand?"
"That was more than four years ago now," Yates replied, "and I didn't go back and try to review any of that."
But Cornyn was not to be disturbed from his time warp. He went on about Comey's conduct, Loretta Lynch's tarmac meeting with Bill Clinton, and Rod Rosenstein's memo justifying Comey's firing. "Director Comey was out of control," the senator concluded.
Maybe so. But you know who's out of control now? Cornyn -- and Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Ted Cruz, R-Tex., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and all the others trying to change the subject from the crises now gripping the nation to their greatest hits from 2016. As the Trump administration drifts and millions lose their unemployment benefits, the Senate Judiciary Committee staged yet another hearing Wednesday about the Steele dossier, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr, Fusion GPS and other golden oldies.
Graham, the committee chairman, seemed defensive about his choice of hearing topic, for he kept posing and answering rhetorical questions: "So what's the purpose of this hearing? . . . And to the public, why does this matter to you? . . . Why are we having these hearings? . . . And again, why does it matter?" And those were just the ones from his opening statement.
Maybe Graham perceives the yawning gap between where the country is right now and where Republicans are. It isn't just about Weiner's laptop. As Americans grapple with public health, economic and racial-justice crises, Trump and his allies are talking about antifa, illegal immigrants and "Obamagate."
In the red state of Missouri on Tuesday, voters approved an expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare -- the sixth Republican-led state where voters overruled GOP leaders who opposed the expansion. The state's governor and other Republicans fought the ballot initiative.
The anti-expansion consortium put out a mailing featuring a person wearing a Mexican-flag face mask and claiming the expansion "means illegal immigrants flooding Missouri hospitals . . . while we pay for it!" As the Kansas City Star pointed out, illegal immigrants aren't eligible to enroll in Medicaid. The anti-immigrant lie didn't work.
In Washington on Tuesday, Cruz conducted a hearing on "stopping anarchist violence" in which he used the Judiciary Committee's Constitution subcommittee to allege that demonstrations against police brutality have been taken over by "antifa."
Cruz alleged that "antifa and other radicals" in Portland, Oregon, have thrown metal pipes, used lasers, launched "mortar-style attacks" and "firebombed" a courthouse. "And sadly, what's missing is too many in the Democratic Party refused to condemn antifa," he said. Antifa got 96 mentions at the hearing.
But as Mark Hosenball of Reuters reported that same day, federal prosecutors have produced no evidence linking the dozens of people arrested at protests in Portland to antifa or anarchist groups. Prosecutors have alleged no "affiliation with any specific groups or ideologies," a Justice Department official acknowledged.
It's much the same with "Obamagate." An inspector general concluded that the Trump-Russia probe had a legitimate basis, and he found no evidence of political bias. Yet even now, in the midst of national crises and collapse, Trump's allies are still talking about Anthony Weiner's laptop.
"BIG NEWS!" Trump tweeted in response to Wednesday's hearing. "The Political Crime of the Century is unfolding. ObamaBiden illegally spied on the Trump Campaign, both before and after the election. Treason!"
In reality, Yates testified that President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden "did not in any way attempt to direct or influence any kind of investigation" and she repeatedly asserted that a genuine "counterintelligence threat," not politics, was behind the Trump-Russia investigation.
Not that it mattered. "What I want to let the American people know," Graham said after three hours of questioning Yates, "is I don't buy for a minute that there were only two people at the FBI who knew the dossier was garbage."
The nation, because of a worst-in-the-world pandemic response, is on the cusp of depression -- and that's what Graham wants Americans to know?
God help us."

Obama delivers eulogy for John Lewis

Past President Barack Obama delivered a eulogy for departed Congressman and civil rights leader John R. Lewis at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Wed July 30, 2020.  The eulogy was the story of John Lewis's life and the story of his purpose and perseverance throughout.  President Obama goes further to connect what is happening in America to the purposeful life that John Lewis led.  President Obama goes on to look forward to where each and every citizen can take this country by applying the example of John Lewis.  It is a profound thing to see.  Enjoy at - LINK.

Irony or hypocrisy?

The nation's governors plead for coronavirus assistance from the federal government in the form of masks, gowns, ventilators, tests and test equipment, and a national plan to combat the virus and stop the excessive death rate.  The result is paltry, lacking in quantity and/or substance, inadequate, or non-existent.  There may even be some lies about provisions made, but never provided.  Meanwhile US citizens sicken and die at perhaps the highest rate in the world.

Face that with the unasked for and unwanted "assistance" of federal armed forces to control mostly peaceful protests in Portland.  The presence of the Federal troops escalated the problems in Portland, and pleas and lawsuits for their removal followed.

On the one hand, we have an existential need to plan for and control the killing  virus, that is not provided, juxtaposed with the unwanted interference of federal troops abusing citizens and contravening their First amendment rights.  We get what we don't want or need from the current administration.

VOTE.

John Lewis posthumous editorial

John Robert Lewis was interred in an Atlanta cemetery today (July 30, 2020).  He was driven to strive for equality early in his 80-year life.  At 15 he was inspired by Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  At 17 he met Rosa Parks, and at 23 he went to work with Dr. King.  John Lewis was the son of a sharecropper and became a US Congressman.  He never stopped fighting for freedom and equality - he was called the "conscience of the congress".  He knew he was soon to die from cancer and wrote an essay on July 18 to be published after his death in the New York Times.  It is profound.  Enjoy it here - LINK.

Galloping autocracy

We need some good news.  The only close possibility to good news is that in 100 days, there's a chance trump will be voted out as President of the United States - he is anything but a president or a uniter, or anything but a malicious, narcissistic, grifter.  There's lots of scattered references to trump picturing himself as dictator of the US.  After all, he admires such, like Putin and Erdogan.
But Ann McFeatters of the Tribune News Service, has pulled the scattered pieces together for our mutual shock.  Check out this 15-point piece listing recent severe tilts toward authoritarianism by this corrupt administration - LINK.

Close to home

Federal unmarked, camo-dressed troops are harassing protesters in downtown Portland.  The protest over George Floyd's murder and Black Lives Matter in general have gone on for some 50 days.  At times there have been small groups of troublemakers setting fires, looting, breaking store windows and taking advantage of the situation.  Those incidents tend to take place after good dark.  The predominant numbers of people on the streets have been peaceful and no one has brandished weapons.

Now trump and his Acting Homeland Security Secretary, Chad Wolfe (he's number 5, if you're counting) are  playing politics with peaceful protesters.  Trump has bad-mouthed the operation of cities by Democratic Mayors like Portland, Seattle. Chicago, Philly, Detroit, and Baltimore - all of which are "run by liberal Democrats", says trump - LINK.  So the intrusion of federal thugs is strictly a polling ploy to try to demonstrate to his base that he is the Law and Order candidate.  These hugs don't wear insignia of any kind and won't say what organization they are with.  There's a real possibility that they are a form of federal mercenary without legitimacy.

The net result has been an increase in protester activity because now the presence of the federal thugs is being protested.  In the last few days, a new even more innocent protest group has sprung up called the "Wall of Moms".  Their purpose is to stand in front of the protesters, between them and the federal gunsels, to demonstrate the air of legitimacy, and peacefulness, to the rallies.  Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler joined them recently on the front line.  All the group; Moms, protesters, and Mayor were gassed that night.  This is ostensibly to protect federal property, namely the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, but that is just a bluff.

Dana Milbank, of the Washington Post Writers Group, summarizes the situation and contrasts it with trumps hypocritical statements, rather nicely - LINK.

And it seems the idea of the "Wall of Moms has spread to other potest cities in at least 22 cities and states - LINK.

Ballot in hand - now what?

Your primary ballot arrived a day or so ago and just prior to that a Voters' Pamphlet.  Go ahead be a "voter".  Exercise that hard-fought right.    Many of these races are true primary races where the outcome determines who is on the ballot in November.  These are good choices to participate in right now.  For some races, there's not a huge amount of controversy for this particular primary election, but the results will tell the candidates whether they are in a good position or not for the Nomber General Election. 

And the candidates, like all the rest of us, are in a unique place of non-information this election cycle due to the overwhelming separation caused by the  COVID-19 coronavirus.  Speaking of support, it's very possible that you have not donated any campaign dollars to a candidate in your district yet this season.  You normally would have attended a rally, or been handed a remit envelope, or had the candidate or their team at your door, but again, the pandemic has precluded all that activity and opportunity.  So go ahead and make your customary donation to those erstwhile people you normally support.  Their names and websites, with donation pages, are as close as your Voters' Pamphlet.

Here's some suggestions:

Carolyn Long - 3rd Congressional District House of Representatives
Jay Inslee - Governor State of Washington
Denny Heck - Lieutenant Governor
Gael Tarleton - Secretary of State
Mike Pellicciotti - State Treasurer
Patrice McCarthy - State Auditor
Bob Ferguson - Attorney general
Hilary Franz - Commissioner of Public Lands
Chris Reykdal - Commissioner of Public Instruction
Mike Kreidler - Insurance Commissioner
Daniel Smith - State Senator, 17th Legislaticve District
Tanisha Harris - State Rep, 17th Legislative District, Pos 1
Donna Sinclair - State Rep 18th LD, Pos 2
Annette Cleveland - State Senator, 49th LD
Sharon Wylie - State Rep, 49th LD, Pos 1
Monica Stonier - State Rep, 49th LD, Pos 2
Matt Little - Clark County Councilor, Dist 4

No plan is not a plan

MSNBC reiterated an opinion piece by Jay Rosen, professor of journalism at New York University, and political write.  The very prophetic piece was witten May 04, 2020 and predicted, direly, the president's response to the coronavirus epidemic.  He said the following:

"The plan is to have no plan, to let daily deaths between one and three thousand become a normal thing, and then to create massive confusion about who is responsible— by telling the governors they’re in charge without doing what only the federal government can do, by fighting with the press when it shows up to be briefed, by fixing blame for the virus on China or some other foreign element, and by “flooding the zone with shit,” Steve Bannon’s phrase for overwhelming the system with disinformation, distraction, and denial, which boosts what economists call “search costs” for reliable intelligence.
Stated another way, the plan is to default on public problem solving, and then prevent the public from understanding the consequences of that default. To succeed this will require one of the biggest propaganda and freedom of information fights in U.S. history, the execution of which will, I think, consume the president’s re-election campaign. So much has already been made public that the standard script for a White House cover up (worse than the crime…) won’t apply. Instead, everything will ride on the manufacture of confusion. The press won’t be able to “expose” the plot because it will all happen in stark daylight. The facts will be known, and simultaneously they will be inconceivable. 

“The plan is to have no plan” is not a strategy, really. Nor would I call it a policy. It has a kind of logic to it, but this is different from saying it has a design— or a designer. Meaning: I do not want to be too conspiratorial about this. To wing it without a plan is merely the best this government can do, given who heads the table. The manufacture of confusion is just the ruins of Trump’s personality meeting the powers of the presidency. There is no genius there, only a damaged human being playing havoc with our lives." -LINK.


This has so grimly come to pass!

COVID-19 data diversion

Trump's administration has mandated that states and hospitals that have been reporting coronavirus case and death data to the CDC for official collection, analysis, and dissemination to bypass that system and report their data directly to the Department of Health and Homeland Security (HHS).  Their proffered reason is that the CDC's data system is archaic - LINK.
With Trump at terrific odds with scientists, doctors, and science believers over the severity and mitigation of the coronavirus pandemic, this mandate offers  the likelihood that the data will be misreported lower than actual to supports trump's jaundiced point of view.

In similar action, trump's trade advisor, Peter Navarro, wrote a stinging oped in USA Today castigating Dr Anthony Fauci's statements about the pandemic.  Fauci stated that Navarro "lives in a different world."  Despite trump's criticism of  Navarro's piece, trump made negative comments about Fauci over the weekend, and the White House published a list of errors on the part of Fauci.  

The world is in the middle - deep in the middle - of a pandemic and the US is handling the event the worst of any developed nation in the world, and the US condemns the world's top epidemiologist; Fauci, denigrates and stifles the CDC; the once esteemed worldwide epidemic authority, and withdraws support for the World Health Organization (WHO).  National leadership is dedicated towards what trump imagines will gain him re-election, but his negative leadership is keeping the citizens in jeopardy, politicizing this serious health issue, and stifling the economy.  The economy is not fairly represented by just the stock indices.  They represent only about 10% of Americans.  The real economic indicators are unemployment, personal  savings, stable home ownership, and retail and restaurant sales - LINK.  All those major indicators are in a terrific slump.  The question put forth is , "are you better off than you were 4 years ago?".

What does Trump stand for

Most of America believes trump stands for ... himself, mostly.  And he appeals to his base through upholding racism.  Whether it's "nice people on both sides" (Charlottesville), or leave our heritage statues alone, or Muslim bans, or Mexican border walls, it's racism.

Querying the internet for trump accomplishments brings up a long list - but most of it is not really due to him, and most finally nullified by trumps total mismanagement of the pandemic - LINK.

Ann McFeatters of the Tribune News Service recently ripped the GOP & trump and showed his platform is non-existent.  It's a great read - LINK.

Local systemic racism

Clark County WA is having its own racial controversy.  The County Council Chair, Eileen Quiring, has stated, in words and actions, that systemic racism does not exist in Clark County.  Let's just cover that by saying "pish posh".  Systemic racism is everywhere and is well known to the tens of thoudsands of protesters who demostrated for the last several weeks after the police killing of George Floyd - and that was only the tip of the spear.  Systemic  racism towards people of color in Clark County and basically Ms Quiring if you don't see it then you might just be a blind racist.  The rest of the County Council signed a letter supporting Sheriff Atkins decision to remove the decal for "The Thin Blue Line" from County Sheriffs' vehicles.  A simple move to remove what has become a symbol of racial divide to some.  But Quiring wouldn't the letter where all 4 Councilors did sign it.  And she's the leader.  She expressed her opinion, and as The Columbian's Greg Jayne pointed out in Sunday's editorial opinions are fine but this is a case of leadership and her actions need to exhibit leadership towards all the citizens of Clark County.  (You may remember Quiring also went to a Battle Ground School Board meeting to protest their plans for general student sex education; a situation where education far outweighs ignorance or supposed abstinence.)

County Councilor Temple Lentz (District 1) provided and OpEd in Sunday's Columbian entitled, "Acknowledge racism to end it".  She points out ways to gain a vantage point to see systemic racism, and to begin to combat it.  Racism is lately the biggest issue of our time, and maybe just maybe we'll take some real eye-opening steps to quash for good. 

It's apparent that no help will be obtained from trump who demonstrated on July 3 and July 4 that racism is a loud dog whistle of his campaign.  It seems he can't see the reason for all the protesters in recent weeks.  He only sees civil disobedience.  Let's vote him out.

"Just Live with IT!"???

How soon can we get Joe Biden in charge so we can get out of this pandemic wipe-out?  The White House is now saying we are to "live with it" - the COVID-19 Coronavirus!  It's really live with it or die with it!  Trump today (07/07/20) said move ahead to full reopening, thus ignore the virus.  He says we'd have millions dead if it wasn't for what he had done.  That may be true but the prognosis is now 200,000 dead in the US - we're at about 130,000 dead now.  The real truth of the matter is that other countries like us, including Canada, France, and Germany, have flattened the curve and brought new cases down into the hundreds/day level - we are at 40,000 to 50,000 per day.  Eyeballing Canada, France and Germany looks like the following (Source Worldometer Coronavirus -LINK):
Country           Population (millions)       New C-19 Cases/day      New Cases per Million Pop.
US                            350                                    50,000                                             143
Canada                     38                                         300                                                  8
France                       67                                         600                                                  9
Germany                  83                                         500                                                  6
Other countries similar to us figured out what to do:  wear masks, social distance, do not reopen too soon.
It's inexcusable to demand reopening action that threatens to kill another 70,000 Americans.  Some states like Florida and its Republican toady of a governor Desantis, just suck along behind trump and do his bidding.  The whole situation verges on criminal.  Trump said in 2016 he could walk out on 5th Avenue and shoot someone and no one would bother.  Well, he's killing Americans now and recourse is very limited.

Trump insults Americans

The trump administration is currently applying to the Supreme Court to abolish the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare.  In the st when this defeat has been attempted, at least lip service has been offered that ACA would be replaced with something better.  Not the case this time.  Loss of Obamacare would deny at least 23 million Americans healthcare. And why go after Obamacare now with the coronavirus pandemic raging meaning greater need for healthcare provisions  It just more pique on the part of trump?  No excuse is offered, and no excuse is good enough.

The Columbian's Greg Jayne covers the problem well in today's (06/28/20) editorial - LINK.

Trump Potpourri

Trump Unloved - President trump "admitted Friday that his opponent Joe Biden may be elected president in November."  He added. ""And he's going to be your president 'cause some people don't love me, maybe, and you know, all I'm doing is doing my job."  Don't we all wish he would do his job, or know how to do his job!?  Hard to believe this man is president of the United States.  He has only brought ''dis-unity' to our land.   LINK

Three major problems are manifested:
1. A major epidemic in the US has made us the sickest nation on earth and we are doing nothing proactive nationally.  Pence was on TV yesterday (Fri 06/26/20) and said lies about how well the virus was being defeated - LINK.
2. The economy is in very bad shape with millions unemployed and the stock market oscillating to the virus outbreaks.
3. Citizens have been in the streets for weeks protesting systemic racism and police violence.

Trump has done nothing to contain these problems.  He seems done with the virus.  He is unwilling or incapable of combating it.  He is only concerned with rallying votes for his re-election.  And it is believed the rallies boost his fragile ego.

Trump refuses to wear a mask to exhibit leadership in controlling spread of the disease, and by so doing he has politicized the virus into a red and blue issue; something like 'real republicans don't wear masks'.  There are now more cases of COVID-19 in the US than at any other time.  It's not a second wave, it's still the first wave gaining huge momentum.  The fix for the economy is to control the virus by wearing masks, testing, having sufficient PPE for caregivers, and opening up according to the previously published guidelines.  Many states ignored the guidelines and rushed opening.  Now they have out of control virus caseloads - Florida, Texas, and Oklahoma among the many.  In Texas, Republican Governor Abbot has has to back up on his remarks and re-close bars to try for control.  He took his cues from trump and went too fast and too soon.  Only 37% of the populace approves of the way he's handled the pandemic, and 58% disapprove - LINK.

Trump's handling of the protestors is to distort and obfuscate.  He has sharply criticized cities for being weak and threatened to take care of the problem himself.  He used violence against protesters in Lafayette Park to clear a path for a photo op for himself to show he was unafraid after hunkering in the White House underground bunker days before.  He makes remarks that ignore the facts  about police brutality to people of color and national systemic racism.  "Asked in a Wall Street Journal interview last week whether he believed systemic racism exists, Trump said: 'I'd like to think there is not but unfortunately, there probably is some. I would also say it's very substantially less than it used to be.'" -LINK. This is not definitive or helpful dialogue and does not represent the protester concerns.  Functionally, the remarks are the usual dog whistle to his base.

The country has no leadership from the executive branch of government.  It's especially obvious in this time of unrest, epic sickness, and unemployment in his non-answers to Fox News Sean Hannity which revealed he has no agenda for his second term - LINK.

Trump is losing in the polls.  Yes, it is a ways to the November election and things can change fast, but the published data say no president has been re-elected when they are this far down in the polls at this time.  Depending on the poll, Biden is ahead of Trump overall by 8-14% - LINK.

Trump Vilified - Steve Schmidt worked on several Republican campaigns including John McCain, George W. Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  He has subsequently renounced the republican part as "fully the Party of Trump".  Schmidt is unabashed about describing trump in very blunt  terms for what he is.  Among other things he calls trump and imbecile and an idiot.  Read the article and quote - LINK.

Wear your mask - esteemed Governor Jay Inslee insists on it, and be ready to vote in the primary election on Tues August 04.  That election is only 5 weeks away.  There are many worthy people running for office locally.  Have awareness of them.

As for the November election, ask yourself the simple question:  'Are you better off than you were four years ago?'

Bolton? Wow!

,John Bolton, Former National Security Advisor under Donald Trump has written a tell-all book about his time with Trump that drills trump significantly.
Bolton has been in government since the Reagan years.  He is a hard-right hawk and has "made many enemies" - LINK. 

Bolton would not testify in the impeachment of trump.  He is trying to publish a book revealing many offenses by trump as president which, if shared during the impeachment process, could be supposed to have provided a different result.  But Bolton chose to not testify and instead to produce this book, preferring the prospect of raking in large profits from sales.  The book has been held up by lawsuits from the trump administration.

Bolton was thoroughly reviled by Chris Hayes on MSNBC on Wed 06/17/20.  A link to Chris's remark is attached - LINK.  It makes interesting viewing. 

Go to RNC? Update

If you're going to the 2020 Republican National Convention you'll have to do two things: 1- Don't go to Charlotte, NC where the convention was scheduled and committed, and 2- sign a pledge saying if you get COVID-19 that you won't sue Trump or the venue.  Really?!
The North Carolina governor said he could not in good faith hold a convention to trump's requirements of no masks and no social distancing.  So trump had the convention moved - to Jacksonville FL. 

Right now the "Pledge" required by attendees is for the Juneteenth Trump Tulsa, Oklahoma rally that's to be held on the blacks' day of celebration of desegregation - June 19,1865, but it'll not be surprise to see it continued for all trump's gatherings.  Tulsa is also the site of the 1921 black massacre where whites killed a whole neighborhood of blacks and destroyed 35 blocks of buildings in the so-called black Wall Street.  At least 36 people were killed, but some estimate up to 300 dead.  Thousands were injured and left homeless.

UPDATE:  The trump rally scheduled for Juneteenth in Tulsa has been rescheduled from Friday June 19 to Saturday June 20. Ostensibly. it was rescheduled out of respect for the significant Black day, but more likely there was so much outcry over the racist trump arriving on Juneteenth that it was prudent.  A black woman whose twin brother was killed in Tulsa a few years ago says moving the trump visit a few hours does not change anything.

A clarion call for change

George Will is described in Wikipedia thusly: "George Frederick Will (born May 4, 1941) is an American conservative political commentator. He writes regular columns for The Washington Post and provides commentary for NBC News and MSNBC.[3] In 1986, The Wall Street Journal called him 'perhaps the most powerful journalist in America,' in a league with Walter Lippmann (1889–1974).[4][5] He won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977."

On June 01, 2020, Will wrote a stinging column in The Washington Post calling for the removal of Trump and the routing of Senate Republicans for their "Vichyite collaboration" with trump.  The column expresses, in summary, the mounting feelings by thinking people toward the administration, and issues a couple warnings for the near future.  Enjoy.  LINK.

Dem Daily: In the words of presidents

DemDaily: In The Words of Presidents
June 4, 2020
Amid nine days of protest and civil unrest following the death of George Floyd, four former United States presidents spoke out this week as the void of leadership in the current White House compelled them to voice their concerns, their words of comfort, and their call for change and community to an anxious nation.
It was an unprecedented collective of statements during an unprecedented time in our country's history -- each in stark contrast to the current president who has stoked the seeds of hate and flamed the fires that have spread through our cities nationwide.

(Image: CBS News)
Bill Clinton
US President, 1993-2000
May 30th Statement by former President Bill Clinton
"No one deserves to die the way George Floyd did...
Fifty-seven years ago, Dr. King dreamed of a day when his 'four little children would be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.' Today, that dream seems even more out of reach, and we'll never reach it if we keep treating people of color with the unspoken assumption that they're less human...
We need to see each other as equally deserving of life, liberty, respect, dignity, and the presumption of innocence.  We need to ask ourselves and each other hard questions, and listen carefully to the answers.
Here's where I'd start.
If George Floyd had been white, handcuffed, and lying on the ground, would he be alive today? Why does this keep happening? What can we do to ensure that every community has the police department it needs and deserves? What can I do?
We can't honestly answer these questions in the divide and conquer, us vs. them, shift the blame and shirk the responsibility world we're living in. People with power should go first-answer the questions, expand who's 'us' and shrink who's 'them,' accept some blame, and assume more responsibility. But the rest of us have to answer these questions too."

Barack Obama
US President, 2009-2016
June 1st Statement by former President Barack Obama titled,
"How to Make This Moment the Turning Point for Real Change"

In separate June 3rd video, Obama Addresses Young People of Color: "Your lives matter, your dreams matter" (Watch/CLICK)
"First, the waves of protests across the country represent a genuine and legitimate frustration over a decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the United States...
(But) let's not excuse violence, or rationalize it, or participate in it. If we want our criminal justice system, and American society at large, to operate on a higher ethical code, then we have to model that code ourselves...
The point of protest is to raise public awareness, to put a spotlight on injustice, and to make the powers that be uncomfortable; in fact, throughout American history, it's often only been in response to protests and civil disobedience that the political system has even paid attention to marginalized communities. But eventually, aspirations have to be translated into specific laws and institutional practices - and in a democracy, that only happens when we elect government officials who are responsive to our demands...
The elected officials who matter most in reforming police departments and the criminal justice system work at the state and local levels...
So the bottom line is this: if we want to bring about real change, then the choice isn't between protest and politics. We have to do both. We have to mobilize to raise awareness, and we have to organize and cast our ballots to make sure that we elect candidates who will act on reform...
I recognize that these past few months have been hard and dispiriting - that the fear, sorrow, uncertainty, and hardship of a pandemic have been compounded by tragic reminders that prejudice and inequality still shape so much of American life. But watching the heightened activism of young people in recent weeks, of every race and every station, makes me hopeful. If, going forward, we can channel our justifiable anger into peaceful, sustained, and effective action, then this moment can be a real turning point in our nation's long journey to live up to our highest ideals.  Let's get to work."

(Xena Goldman)
George W. Bush
US President, 2001-2008
June 2nd Statement by former President George W. Bush
"Laura and I are anguished by the brutal suffocation of George Floyd and disturbed by the injustice and fear that suffocate our country. Yet we have resisted the urge to speak out, because this is not the time for us to lecture. It is time for us to listen...
The only way to see ourselves in a true light is to listen to the voices of so many who are hurting and grieving. Those who set out to silence those voices do not understand the meaning of America - or how it becomes a better place...
The heroes of America - from Frederick Douglass, to Harriet Tubman, to Abraham Lincoln, to Martin Luther King, Jr. - are heroes of unity. Their calling has never been for the fainthearted. They often revealed the nation's disturbing bigotry and exploitation - stains on our character sometimes difficult for the American majority to examine. We can only see the reality of America's need by seeing it through the eyes of the threatened, oppressed, and disenfranchised."
That is exactly where we now stand. Many doubt the justice of our country, and with good reason. Black people see the repeated violation of their rights without an urgent and adequate response from American institutions. We know that lasting justice will only come by peaceful means. Looting is not liberation, and destruction is not progress. But we also know that lasting peace in our communities requires truly equal justice. The rule of law ultimately depends on the fairness and legitimacy of the legal system. And achieving justice for all is the duty of all.
This will require a consistent, courageous, and creative effort. We serve our neighbors best when we try to understand their experience. We love our neighbors as ourselves when we treat them as equals, in both protection and compassion. There is a better way - the way of empathy, and shared commitment, and bold action, and a peace rooted in justice. I am confident that together, Americans will choose the better way."

Carter: We "must stand up and say 'no more'" (John Amis/AP)
Jimmy Carter
US President, 1977-1980
June 3rd Statement by former President Jimmy Carter
"Rosalynn and I are pained by the tragic racial injustices and consequent backlash across our nation in recent weeks. Our hearts are with the victims' families and all who feel hopeless in the face of pervasive racial discrimination and outright cruelty. We all must shine a spotlight on the immorality of racial discrimination. But violence, whether spontaneous or consciously incited, is not a solution.
As a white male of the South, I know all too well the impact of segregation and injustice to African Americans. As a politician, I felt a responsibility to bring equity to my state and our country. In my 1971 inaugural address as Georgia's governor, I said: 'The time for racial discrimination is over.' With great sorrow and disappointment, I repeat those words today, nearly five decades later. Dehumanizing people debases us all; humanity is beautifully and almost infinitely diverse. The bonds of our common humanity must overcome the divisiveness of our fears and prejudices.
Since leaving the White House in 1981, Rosalynn and I have strived to advance human rights in countries around the world. In this quest, we have seen that silence can be as deadly as violence. People of power, privilege, and moral conscience must stand up and say 'no more' to a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks, and government actions that undermine our unified democracy. We are responsible for creating a world of peace and equality for ourselves and future generations.
We need a government as good as its people, and we are better than this."

Bad photo op

Today; Monday Jun 01, 2020, marked one week since the killing of George Floyd and the 4th day of protests over police brutality towards blacks, specifically, and racism in this country, in general.  On Friday, protest rallies in Washington DC, which did include some some looting, fires and vandalism, caused the president to be sheltered in the White House underground bunker.

Today, in a show of trump reverse-strength, the man wanted to show he was unafraid so he made a speech in the Rose Garden about law and order and said he would invoke the US military to keep the peace.  While that went on, he had peaceful protesters one block from the White house  gassed, shot with rubber bullets, and pushed by police with shields and horses so that at the conclusion of his violence-escalating speech, he could walk out the front door of the White House, across the lawn, thru Lafayette Park and cross to St John's Episcopal Church.  Once there, in front of the boarded -up church, he posed for photo op with a bible as a prop and said the usual it'll-be-great pap he always says.  Opinions by commenters on CNN and MSNBC were that it was appalling and disgraceful and marked a turning point toward dictatorship in this country.  Disappointing to not have any leadership in the White House anywhere, or in the Senate.  Today was worse.  What next?

George Floyd has become an icon

George Floyd was killed by a policeman in Minneapolis MN on Monday 05/25/20.  The police stopped him on the street apparently on suspicion of passing a $20 bill.  Onlooker videos show the police had Floyd on the ground with policeman Derek Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck for over 8 minutes.  During that time, Floyd said he could not breathe.  By the time Chauvin released Floyd's neck, Floyd had been unresponsive for over 2 minutes.  He was removed by ambulance and pronounced dead at the hospital. 

Now protests in many major cities across the US are happening daily.  Included are New York, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Louisville, and especially Minneapolis.  Protests center around the violent, cruel, criminal killing of George Floyd.  Protests often contain violent aspects with fires, damage, and storefront windows smashed, and looting.  The more violent participants may be locals with especial anger or opportunists who deal in violence.

People all over the country are angry over the killing of George Floyd and use this particular incident to represent the many such incidents of blacks and people of color being treated badly by police.  Many cities have a similar incidents that have occurred in recent years.  And it's not only police behavior towards citizens of color, it's a long-standing issue of troubled race relations in this country with jobs, housing, neighborhoods, medical care.  Where law decries segregationist behavior, de facto racism and double-standard behavior is widespread.  This president - trump - has done much to foment these feelings, attitudes, and behavior in his rallies, and his support for the Charlottsville, SC white supremacists.

Are the violent rioters Antifa or uber right-wing supremacists?  Recent opinions are that trump calls them Antifa because they are purportedly far left and Anti-trump.  The 'Boogaloo bois' are believed in it for white supremacy and would be labelled far-right

Civil rights in this country has never really become a reality for blacks and browns.  Now, people all over, are on the streets protesting the current state of racism in this country.  Some may interpret this uprising activity as a negative popularity poll for the president and his overall policies that ignore people of color, promote racism, foment inequality, and his general disregard for anybody not of the ruling class.
No reasonable person condones violent protest  - it diverts attention away from the real subject of the protest.  But the size of these protests are brought from injustice and anger which are justified and have legitimacy.

How do we get good positive awareness and action come out of this incidents?  Do we have to wait for November third?

Trump don't care

Trump is simply done with the novel coronavirus.  He has no real empathy for the over 100,000 dead in the US.  He puts forth virtually no comfort, no condolence and says, "People die".  Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald makes a real comparison between Trump and previous leaders when tragedy strikes.  The former is nothing, the latter is prose with genuine emotion and sensitivity. - LINK.

Today trump gave a press conference, or rather made statements to the press, then stomped off.  He talked some about Minneapolis and the awful death of George Floyd.  Trump threatened the violent protesters with "shooting".  Watching last night's events about 7:00-9:00 PM (PDT), it was obvious that some folks were more than protesters and were hellbent on violence.  Still, the Minneapolis police and fire stayed out of sight in order to prevent additional violence, or even lost lives, if confrontation swelled.  Trump tries to promote law and order and still appease blacks; without doing either well.

The rest of his talking was blaming the World Health Organization to the extent that US support of the WHO is being cutoff.  Not the best thing to do in the midst of a world pandemic.  And he blamed China for the virus and its spread, saying they kept it too quiet.  It's hard to know the facts about China and its response to the virus, but we do know that the US team in China to work on these exact pandemics was pulled out of China during the trump reign, which hamstrung response.  And we know that trump's response was denial for weeks when it all started in the US.  He  spouts distractions and lies in attempt to absolve himself of blame.  A correct response from the administration would be to make testing much more available so that people trying to go to work, at his insistence, would have the information they need to do so.  But that's not of interest to him.  He's only interested in himself and his re-election.  Ignoble goals, ignoble methods, not a president.  Who would have to be infected, or die, to make him want to respond to the needs of the citizens?

ObamaGate?? Really!?

Trump is tossing around the non-word "Obamagate" as if it meant something.  When asked by a reporter what crimes in purported to refer to, Trump said, "You know".  So it is a last-ditch effort by a beleaguered fool who cannot thing about anything but himself, and has mishandled the coronavirus pandemic with out regard to the number of dead citizens, to pull some rabbit out of his posterior and perhaps besmirch Joe Biden by association.  Ain't gonna work!  If anything, it will energize black voters to vote FOR Joe Biden, and demonstrates that trump is desperately trying to cling to his dictator position.  Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post penned a worthy op/ed on the Obamagate subject - LINK.

And speaking of the worldwide pandemic  - the US is number 1:  Number 1 in deaths per unit population!  Not a record to be proud of.  The New York Times recently published a study showing that if trump had taken on one week earlier even the meager leadership he exhibited, instead of taking about hoaxes, and warm weather, and miracles, 36,000 lives could have been saved by May 4.  LINK. 
That smidgen of quasi-leadership got used up quickly as he foisted control off on the governors with a partisan brush, and has yet to provide the necessary federal role to supply adequate testing of citizens.  Now on this Memorial Day Weekend, all 50 states are being pressed to 'open' without ever having passed the first steps of the published federal guidelines.  absolute hypocrisy, lying and Doublespeak.  Days from now will there be a spike in COVID-19 cases?  Many predict there will be.  Our lives and habits are changed forever.

Some of the changes are needless, but trumpian.  The Doublespeak - the saying meet-the-guidelines vs open-up- anyway - is so utterly NOT leadership.  Combine that with partisanship like withholding pandemic supplies or aid from Blue states, and giving monetary aid to big industry instead of the working citizens with bills to pay, flies in the face of the principles we expect to follow in this country.  Recently, he threatened to withhold federal aid to flooded Michigan for legally mailing out absentee ballots request forms.  You likely remember that trump is against vote-from-home because he's afraid easier voting will induce more Democrats to vote and he'll lose in November, so he'll suppress voting. 

Obama said it the other day, "Vote."

It gets personal real fast...

"Anybody can get a test", says Donald Trump.  Or can they?  The answer is no they can't.  LINK.   If you think you have been exposed, is that enough?  Likely not.  You'll have to have some symptoms, as well.  If you watch much informative TV, you know testing is not readily available, or accurate.

Let's say you're having surgery on say Monday.  The surgeon wants a firm check on you being free from COVID-19 and orders you a test at a local health provider, like The Vancouver Clinic.  But the test takes a while to get results back so the test is scheduled on Saturday before the Monday surgery - time enough to reduce subsequent exposure, but early enough to get the results by Monday early AM.  The timing does not preclude that the testee has not done something to expose themselves on Saturday afternoon or Sunday, of course.

Now throw in the test accuracy.  It's the Abbott test ("Abbott RealTime SARS-CoV-2 Assay - Abbott Molecular") which is the only one the health care provider has for use.  The paperwork given to the testee at the time of sampling says it is not FDA approved.  Not so good.  More reading of the "Fact Sheet" reveals that the test can yield a false positive and also a false negative.  Whoa.  The Fact Sheet says there is a "very small chance" of a false positive, and "it is possible " to get a false negative result.  The person administering the test said the test is about 70% accurate.  Holy cow. So if one counts up the possible errors involved - test accuracy & post-test exposure - the comfort factor derived from having the test is greatly reduced.

It's one thing to watch trump expound on TV about the successful mission while knowing that is a lie, but when it is brought to a point of personal need for information and assurance, the result is unsatisfying and maddening.  Like President Obama tweeted recently, "Vote".

The sad timeline of inaction & a prediction

Here's a piece from the Camas-Washougal Post Record show first a prediction by the leaving pandemic chief in 2018, followed by a series of woefully inadequate positions by trump.

Having trump as president is always a burden; climate change, environment, racism, etc, but having to deal with the killing action of COVID-19 and NO leadership, or backward, happy-talk 'leadership' is woeful, and frankly, life threatening.

COVID-19 is manufactured chaos
Cams-Washougal Post Record
April 16, 2020 10:35 am

In late December of last year, the Chinese announced an epidemic in Wuhan. The autocratic Chinese government should have made that outbreak known at least three weeks earlier.

Over here, the increasingly autocratic Trump dithered, misunderstood, failed to act, dismissed the threat as nothing, and let coronavirus win. This poor excuse for an official finally lets us know on March 31 that we can expect more than 100,000 American deaths, yet he fails to model basic preventives such as physical distancing and wearing face masks while in the company of others, endlessly and idiotically stressing that all this is “optional.” 
 An abbreviated timeline with Trump’s claims:
Jan. 22: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China” Davos, Switzerland
Jan. 30: World Health Organization declares Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
Jan. 31: “Proclamation on Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Nonimmigrants of Persons who Pose a Risk of Transmitting 2019 Novel Coronavirus”
Feb. 2: On Fox News: “We pretty much shut it down coming in from China. It’s going to be fine.”
Feb. 25: While visiting India: “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away. They have studied it. They know very much. In fact, we’re very close to a vaccine.”
Feb. 27: During Black History month reception at White House: “One day it’s like a miracle, it will disappear.”
Feb. 28: At a campaign rally: “hoax.”
March 4: Back on Fox again: “If we have thousands of people that get better just by, you know, sitting around and even going to work – some of them go to work, but they get better.”
March 6: While touring the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta: “I think we’re doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down… a tremendous job at keeping it down.”
March 8: Tweet: “We have a perfectly coordinated and fine tuned plan at the White House for our attack on Coronavirus…”
March 10: Press briefing: “It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
March 13: declared the COVID-19 pandemic a National Emergency.

Trump was lying while people were dying. But he created this problem well in advance.

On May 10, 2018,  Stephen Schwartz, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists Senior Fellow,  responding to the Trump administration decision to disbanded the National Security Council’s pandemic response team, Tweeted, “When the next pandemic occurs (and make no mistake, it will) and the federal government is unable to respond in a coordinated and effective fashion to protect the lives of US citizens and others, this decision by John Bolton and Donald Trump will be why.”  
By contrast we can review a different outbreak. Ebola.
December 2013: 18-month-old boy in a small village in Guinea is infected by bats. Nearly 30,000 would die from the subsequent outbreak.
When President Obama responded to the Ebola pandemic he sent experts to West Africa months before a case reached US soil and also before the WHO labelled Ebola an international threat. The response was proactive and robust; it contained the spread enough to basically keep it from the US.
Of course, during the preventive and responsive Obama administration successful defeat of Ebola’s threat to the US, Trump was busy tweeting his usual ignorant and insulting anti-Obama offal. He called Obama “stupid” and with his signature nastiness, tweeted that the American health worker who had become infected while helping with the CDC team should not be brought home for treatment but should “suffer the consequences.” 
By stark and tragic contrast, six years later Trump was in power and we see the predictable catastrophic outcomes. He never sent experts to China; he actually removed Dr. Linda Quick, the CDC health advisor who was in China in July 2019, thus eliminating the expert who worked closely with Chinese public health officials, which slowed the US response by weeks. After dismissing the COVID-19 threat and predicting it would magically disappear, he finally instituted a travel ban. The horse was long gone and he claims great credit for finally shutting the barn door.
Criminally malignant intent or incomprehensibly hateful ignorance? You decide. Those are our logical assessment options. We now have 434,791 cases and 14,802 deaths with no end in sight. 
Wim Laven is syndicated by the Oregon-based PeaceVoice and teaches courses in political science and conflict resolution. 

A Brit's look at Trump

coming42 (coming42) wrote,
2020-04-24 11:38:00

British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.



And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.

WA Rs sue Inslee

Four Washington State Representatives sued governor Jay Inslee on Tuesday saying his continuation of the shut-in order restricted freedoms.  One of the four is Clark County's own Brandon Vick.  WA State Democratic Party Chair Tina Podlodowski immediately condemned the lawsuit.  The claim is that the virus is essentially gone and people are denied rights to work, operate businesses, obtain medical care and worship.  The plaintiffs do mention that they feel the most vulnerable group is the elderly but they seem to be unconcerned about their welfare.  IS this issue significant enough to spur anyone to run against Vick in November? LINK.

Accurate spread rate

New York has had an overwhelming number of cases, and deaths, of the novel coronavirus. They represent over 25% of the cases in the US.  New York is now working successfully to reduce new cases, and being successful.

NY has such large numbers of cases that their data have a large influence on the national picture.  With all the outbreaks in the midwest, especially around towns with meat packing plants, a new depiction of the country was conceived.  The national curve is influenced in a downward, positive, direction by the size of New York's data.  If NY is removed from the picture, a more accurate picture of the nations progress, or lack thereof, is provided.  Such a picture was presented on The Rachel Maddow Show on Tuesday 05/05/20 and is shown below:

It's visible here that the country, excepting New York, is not doing well.  The so called, presidential guidelines for reopening call for a 2-week reduction in cases.  Overall, we're not there yet or even nearly.  Cases are still skyrocketing in prisons, meatpacking plants & towns, and nursing homes.  Any "opening" must be very, very cautious.  It's becoming very clear that trump is betting citizens' lives on raising the economy in hopes of his reelection.

Sanity, but elsewhere

05/03/20.  Canada had a terrible mass shooting on April 18 & 19 in Nova Scotia.  Twenty-two people dead.  "Canadians need more than thoughts and prayers", and "You do not need an AR-15 to bring down a deer", Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday.  Then he banned the buying, selling, transport, import or use" of military grade assault weapon in "over 1500 models and variants of assault-style weapons that have been used in a number of mass shootings in the United States".  Mass shootings are uncommon in Canada, but nowhere are they necessary.  It is interesting to note that it only took one severe example of perverted use of such a device to cause it to be banned in Canada.  the ban will follow a legislative process and amnesty period.  How sensible are our neighbors to the north?! LINK. 

Short term failure and long-term conditions

05/03/20
Here we are.  But where are we?  We've been thru the rehash of trumps failures to act and have to live with the consequences.  Those consequences include two aspects:  a higher level of deaths due the novel coronavirus than necessary and a heightened, continuing schism between Democrats and Republicans. Both of which are unnecessary and heartbreaking.
Trump in typical fashion makes grievous errors and then attempts to cover them up with lies, distractions, reversals and general obfuscation.  Sometimes it's pitiful, sometimes laughable (hurricane sharpie-gate), but this time it's not harmless but deadly.  The totally poor reaction to the pandemic along with the dismal economy and raging unemployment are issues that have acutely affected American citizens, ie, American voters.  Trump will pull out all the stops to sling mud of all varieties on his adversaries, while telling lies about everything imaginable. For a man who said, in 2016 or thereabouts, he really didn't expect to be president, he is hell-bound to stay there.  (Do you ever wonder why he wants to continue?  Power? Profiteering?).  Here's an article that shows an edge of concern for his winnability on the part of his rich supporters, and the average R.  NOt to worry about his base- that 37% is rooted in the Cult of Trump.  LINK.

'Where are we?', continued - Trump is betting on the virus not making a second drastic killing peak between now and election day by opening up the country without adequate data or prevention.  he is gambling with lives and hoping that kicking in the economy will be more noticeable than a second pandemic wave and piles of bodies.  That path might have more validity if tests for the virus, current and past, were available.  But tests are not avaialble.  Apparently 150 different brands of tests are out there but only about 12 are approved y the FDA.  Thus using unapproved tests has a high risk of false answers.  Most prevalent is when testing for the presence of the virus and obtaining a false positive of its presence because the test reacts to kultiple coronaviruses.  Why is trump so very reluctant to take any national responsibility for tests and testing?  He has ordered meat packing plants back to work, but failed to demand use of miti9gation methods.  The CDC seems to have gone toothless in the last couple of weeks deviating from their normal stringent mitigation measures when investigating problems to  saying mitigate "if feasible". LINK. 

Trump just seems disinterested in anything empathetic or national or country or helping to get out of this epidemic.  Indeed his goal is re-election via raising the economy from its depths.  So therefore he should be focused on starting business up in a way that won't cause anther shock wave of coronavirus and doing that by testing people as they go to work and testing people with the serology test to see if they had the disease and have now produced antibodies and commensurate likely immunity.  But no, he tells lies about numbers of tests current and future and has absented himself and the so-called team from sight.  He is done with us and, like always, has put himself and his imagination miles ahead of his job as president.  The scientists are afraid we're moving too fast and coronavirus will take over again.  One bright spot is the public has shown in polls that they overwhelmingly prefer caution, staying well, and staying alive over ripping over the economic band-aid.  Testing is important and way behind in availability - LINK.

The Columbian's Editorial Editor Greg Jayne also sums up many aspects of the coronavirus pandemic response, especially in Washington State. - LINK.   

Here's a little fun piece of mockery from the Chinese directed at America and trump on the response to the pandemic. LINK. 

Protest=Uptick?

05/02/20
Multiple topics
Several protests of governors' shelter-in-place orders were held in Mid April.  According to Worldometer/Coronavirus the national number of new cases started increasing again on 04/28/2020.  That timing may suggest that new cases were generated by lack of social distancing at those events and the cases are now showing up.  There's too little data at Worldometer to make an assured tie-in to those two events; protest and increased disease, but keep watching.

It is still cause for caution to see the number of new cases is rising steadily beginning April 28.  it would seem to indicate that the country is advancing too fast on reopening.  Political pundits suggest trump is betting lives against re-election, in that getting the economy rolling again will lead to his re-election and the increased deaths from opening too soon will be non-consequential. 

A handy source for data worldwide and for the US is Worldometer - LINK.

The protests and protester beg several questions:
   Are they sponsored by specific groups; hate groups?
   What is their real issue? They bring guns,and confederate flags , and call for liberty. 
   Don't they know there's a pandemic going on?  Why don't they care?

One pundit believed that they believed the government was taking control. including control of guns, and that it should be stopped.   They insist they have a right to go to work and make a living.  While that is true, it makes no sense if you are going to get sick and infect others and maybe die.  What is that - the right to get sick?

It's hard to believe that so many issues are being politicized.  McConnell says money to help states should be dis allowed - Let 'em go "bankrupt" - if they're drawing more money from the Fed than they provide, especially the Democratic states.  He needs reminding that Kentucky requires lots of federal help.  Trump called the pandemic a Democratic hoax.  The Rs have managed to dole out support money to big corporations that should not eligible.  It seems the pandemic is an excuse to give their friends tax dollars that they don't deserve.  This is not the bailout of 2007-2008.  This is a time to sustain the working man and the small business.  The oil companies who post gigantic profits annually do not need support. 

Trouble abounds, or more accurately, corruption abounds in this country from Trump, to Justice; William Barr, State Department; Pompeo, to the Supreme Court; Kavanaugh.  The pandemic should have, could have, been a cause to unite this country, but there's too much treachery at the top.

There is some good news though.  Trump's rating in the polls continues to drop now that people can see his deceitful handling of the coronavirus.  And Biden's poll numbers over trump are high in key states like Michigan, PA and Florida, and Wisconsin.  Hopefully, and seemingly, public awareness is high and concern will continue to the November election.

MSNBC put up some poll numbers yesterday that said in 2016 a significant number of people weren't enthralled with either Trump or Hillary Clinton, and they would not hold their nose and vote, but rather would not vote.  Conversely, this season, people who are not overly fond on Biden will, nevertheless, vote substantially for him rather than trump.

Might as well be waggish

Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald often has his tongue stuck in his cheek but he may have outdone himself this time.  Trump made what most thought was a major faux pas when he suggested bleach or other disinfectant put into the body would be an effective coronavirus treatment.  Granted it would likely do some damage to the virus, but the negative effect on the host; ones body, would be even grater and more detrimental.  Reportedly this was a waggish suggestion by trump, even though it generated hundreds of calls to poison centers across the country and denials by Lysol and Clorox.

Leonard takes off on the situation and reviews how trump's claim of 'sarcasm' is found, or not, in the remarks.  Enjoy - LINK.

Response comparisons

he New Yorker magazine recently posted a comparison of the response by Washington state and by New York state to the novel coronavirus.  It demonstrates that an emergency of this pandemic proportion requires conventional political thinking be turned upside down and the control be given to science and medical experts.  LINK.
The comparison shows response based on epidemiologists expectations , even though initial cases may be very low and look relatively controllable, is the very important and wise response to take.  Pay attention to the experts who are trained and experienced in these unusual situations.

An Irish observation of us

Here is a clear summary of the USA as a Trump-nation, especially in light of the handling of the coronavirus here.  The rest of the world is watching us.  The rest of the world sees the US as doing very poorly. 

Irish TimesApril 25, 2020
By Fintan O’Toole
THE WORLD HAS LOVED, HATED AND ENVIED THE U.S. NOW, FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE PITY IT
Over more than two centuries, the United States has stirred a very wide range of feelings in the rest of the world: love and hatred, fear and hope, envy and contempt, awe and anger. But there is one emotion that has never been directed towards the US until now: pity.

However bad things are for most other rich democracies, it is hard not to feel sorry for Americans. Most of them did not vote for Donald Trump in 2016. Yet they are locked down with a malignant narcissist who, instead of protecting his people from Covid-19, has amplified its lethality. The country Trump promised to make great again has never in its history seemed so pitiful.

Will American prestige ever recover from this shameful episode? The US went into the coronavirus crisis with immense advantages: precious weeks of warning about what was coming, the world’s best concentration of medical and scientific expertise, effectively limitless financial resources, a military complex with stunning logistical capacity and most of the world’s leading technology corporations. Yet it managed to make itself the global epicenter of the pandemic.
As the American writer George Packer puts it in the current edition of the Atlantic, “The United States reacted ... like Pakistan or Belarus – like a country with shoddy infrastructure and a dysfunctional government whose leaders were too corrupt or stupid to head off mass suffering.”
It is one thing to be powerless in the face of a natural disaster, quite another to watch vast power being squandered in real time – willfully, malevolently, vindictively. It is one thing for governments to fail (as, in one degree or another, most governments did), quite another to watch a ruler and his supporters actively spread a deadly virus. Trump, his party and Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News became vectors of the pestilence.
The grotesque spectacle of the president openly inciting people (some of them armed) to take to the streets to oppose the restrictions that save lives is the manifestation of a political death wish. What are supposed to be daily briefings on the crisis, demonstrative of national unity in the face of a shared challenge, have been used by Trump merely to sow confusion and division. They provide a recurring horror show in which all the neuroses that haunt the American subconscious dance naked on live TV.
If the plague is a test, its ruling political nexus ensured that the US would fail it at a terrible cost in human lives. In the process, the idea of the US as the world’s leading nation – an idea that has shaped the past century – has all but evaporated.
Other than the Trump impersonator Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, who is now looking to the US as the exemplar of anything other than what not to do? How many people in Düsseldorf or Dublin are wishing they lived in Detroit or Dallas?
It is hard to remember now but, even in 2017, when Trump took office, the conventional wisdom in the US was that the Republican Party and the broader framework of US political institutions would prevent him from doing too much damage. This was always a delusion, but the pandemic has exposed it in the most savage ways.
Abject surrender
What used to be called mainstream conservatism has not absorbed Trump – he has absorbed it. Almost the entire right-wing half of American politics has surrendered abjectly to him. It has sacrificed on the altar of wanton stupidity the most basic ideas of responsibility, care and even safety.
Thus, even at the very end of March, 15 Republican governors had failed to order people to stay at home or to close non-essential businesses. In Alabama, for example, it was not until April 3rd that governor Kay Ivey finally issued a stay-at-home order.
In Florida, the state with the highest concentration of elderly people with underlying conditions, governor Ron DeSantis, a Trump mini-me, kept the beach resorts open to students traveling from all over the US for spring break parties. Even on April 1st, when he issued restrictions, DeSantis exempted religious services and “recreational activities”.
Georgia governor Brian Kemp, when he finally issued a stay-at-home order on April 1st, explained: “We didn’t know that [the virus can be spread by people without symptoms] until the last 24 hours.”
This is not mere ignorance – it is deliberate and homicidal stupidity. There is, as the demonstrations this week in US cities have shown, plenty of political mileage in denying the reality of the pandemic. It is fueled by Fox News and far-right internet sites, and it reaps for these politicians millions of dollars in donations, mostly (in an ugly irony) from older people who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus.
It draws on a concoction of conspiracy theories, hatred of science, paranoia about the “deep state” and religious providentialism (God will protect the good folks) that is now very deeply infused in the mindset of the American right.
Trump embodies and enacts this mindset, but he did not invent it. The US response to the coronavirus crisis has been paralyzed by a contradiction that the Republicans have inserted into the heart of US democracy. On the one hand, they want to control all the levers of governmental power. On the other they have created a popular base by playing on the notion that government is innately evil and must not be trusted.
The contradiction was made manifest in two of Trump’s statements on the pandemic: on the one hand that he has “total authority”, and on the other that “I don’t take responsibility at all”. Caught between authoritarian and anarchic impulses, he is incapable of coherence.
Fertile ground
But this is not just Donald Trump. The crisis has shown definitively that Trump’s presidency is not an aberration. It has grown on soil long prepared to receive it. The monstrous blossoming of misrule has structure and purpose and strategy behind it.
There are very powerful interests who demand “freedom” in order to do as they like with the environment, society and the economy. They have infused a very large part of American culture with the belief that “freedom” is literally more important than life. My freedom to own assault weapons trumps your right not to get shot at school. Now, my freedom to go to the barber (“I Need a Haircut” read one banner this week in St Paul, Minnesota) trumps your need to avoid infection.
Usually when this kind of outlandish idiocy is displaying itself, there is the comforting thought that, if things were really serious, it would all stop. People would sober up. Instead, a large part of the US has hit the bottle even harder.
And the president, his party and their media allies keep supplying the drinks. There has been no moment of truth, no shock of realisation that the antics have to end. No one of any substance on the US right has stepped in to say: get a grip, people are dying here.
That is the mark of how deep the trouble is for the US – it is not just that Trump has treated the crisis merely as a way to feed tribal hatreds but that this behaviour has become normalised. When the freak show is live on TV every evening, and the star is boasting about his ratings, it is not really a freak show any more. For a very large and solid bloc of Americans, it is reality.
And this will get worse before it gets better. Trump has at least eight more months in power. In his inaugural address in 2017, he evoked “American carnage” and promised to make it stop. But now that the real carnage has arrived, he is revelling in it. He is in his element.
As things get worse, he will pump more hatred and falsehood, more death-wish defiance of reason and decency, into the groundwater. If a new administration succeeds him in 2021, it will have to clean up the toxic dump he leaves behind. If he is re-elected, toxicity will have become the lifeblood of American politics.
Either way, it will be a long time before the rest of the world can imagine America being great again.
Fintan O'Toole (born 16 February 1958) is an Irish columnist, literary editor, and drama critic for The Irish Times,[1] for which he has written since 1988. O'Toole was drama critic for the New York Daily News from 1997 to 2001 and is a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books. He is an author, literary critic, historical writer and political commentator. His recent books have focused on the rise, fall and aftermath of Ireland's Celtic Tiger.[2] He has been a strong critic of political corruption in Ireland throughout his career. Copy and paste text to share

Ready to reopen? R vs D?

04/25/20
Local news bristles with discussions of people with opinions and plans to reopen the economy in Washington.  Gov Inslee today floated a plan to reopen construction projects given suitable distance, masking, and sanitizing precautions.
Eileen Quiring and Gary Medvigy of the Clark County Council have voiced their desire to crank things up.  Medvigy has an opponent in the November 2020 election in the form of Independant Matt Little.
Vicki Kraft, 17th LD State Rep, saw fit to parade in an Olympia protest unmasked against the Governor and the shut-in policies.  She returned to Clark County.  Who knows what she brought with her?  She has an opponent in the fall in Democrat Tanisha Harris.
Three Southwest WA senators have postulated recently that sectors could reopen now by using the mitigation techniques.  They believe that employees will whistle-blow if conditions are unsafe.  Will they or would they be afraid of job loss?  And what happens to unemployment availability if your job shuts down a second time?  Is it available?  The senators find the following sectors to be "low-risk" - auto sales, solo landscape services, contractors, hairdressers, dentists,and accountants.
Senators in this group are Ann Rivers, R-La Center, John Braun, R-Centralia, and Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver.  Braun says it's "not necessarily a bad thing" for more people to be exposed to the virus.  Lynda Wilson has an opponent in November in Daniel Smith (D).

A recent national poll found 83% of Americans wished to play it safe and follow the directions of the medical and science experts.  What are you ready to tackle, if anything.

Who W.H.O.?

Trump, last week, castigated the World Health Organization and said the US would no longer support them financially.  Apparently The US supplies up to $500 million annually.  This money aids the WHO to do their work world-wide including countries that have no means to pay back the WHO, but nonetheless an epidemic outbreak in their country could devastate them and many other countries in the world including the US.

The charges against the WHO by Trump are unfounded and form yet another example of Trump obfuscation and distraction - his normal methods to distract attention from his wrongdoings.  In this case he is trying to blame others - the WHO - for his ignoring and lying about the spreading coronavirus pandemic in the US.

Dana Milbank of thew Washington Post has a very good op/ed piece on the subject .  He shows the WHO was on the spot in real time and its team included a significant number of Trump administration people - which he ignored. LINK.

50,000 dead in USA

04/24/20
Where to start.  There is so much going on...and so much that is just back and forth oscillation without positive direction!  We're in serious trouble and have no leadership at the federal level.
Governors have been placed in charge with mixed results.  On the whole Democratic governors seem to follow science and Republican ones seem to follow Trump. 
But what is it to follow trump?  It's a roller coaster.  It changes in hours.  On Tuesday he endorsed the actions of GA governor Brian Kemp to open up salons and tattoo parlors.  On Wednesday, trump condemned that action, but added that Kemp was a good guy and will do what he thinks is best for Georgia.
This wishy-washy blather is so typical of the federal policy toward this highly fatal pandemic - or, really, a lack of defined policy.

Trump shows that he has no idea of what to do about the country.  His only motivation is to do what, in his mind, is helpful to his re-election. The biggest single thing he believes will shore up his chances is a robust economy.  The prediction of the economy in the short-term future - from May to November - is nothing anyone has taken on.  It's a balance between putting people back to work versus that action causing a huge outbreak of COVID-19 and a second collapse of the economy.  Polls indicate a significant majority of US citizens do not want to rush into "opening the country" until is  shown to be safe to do so.  This in spite of the publicized videos of liberators in capital cities carrying "Give me liberty or give me COVID-19" signs, who actually represent a smaller percentage of the population.

Who and why are people protesting?  Some seem to be organized by Trump-supporting groups.  Some are organic.  Why would anyone believe that staying out of harm's way is bad thing to do?  Perhaps they are just ensnared in the Cult of Trump.  There are are many such folks.  They scream on FaceBook.  You've seen them.  What's there basis?  Push America back to the pre-integration days when it was a white, Christian country. 

Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald covers these protesters and their hate of government very well in a recent op/ed.  These people hate government, but in a democracy, the people are the government, and not recognizing that is a fatal misstep.  Read the piece - LINK

Trump  - not bright, not honest

Our President has no empathy.  He finds the coronavirus pandemic and its problems (read: deaths) mostly a problem with the economy, hence his re-election hopes.  He is banking on a good economy to get himself elected to a second term.  He uses the daily press conferences as a bully pulpit to spread lies, misinformation and self-promotion.  Dana Milbank of the Washington Post calls the coronavirus Trump's Vietnam and makes a decent analogy to the events of that familiar past. LINK

Curious about the national deficit?

The size of the current (2020) national deficit is only important to Rs when the Dems want to increase it.  Otherwise, the Rs are free to soar on upwards with the national debt.  It's never been higher and was on track to hit new highs even before the pandemic crisis that has required $2 trillion, so far, to keep workers afloat.  The national deficit for the first half of 2020 is currently at $743.6 billion and was going to hit $1 Trillion before COVID-19 hit - LINK.
The national debt is about $23 trillion - LINK.

COVID-19 reviewed

Are we in the US gaining on the novel coronavirus?  It appears not.

It's well known that the country got off to a late start in spite of warnings, predictions, and reports that include November 2019, and January 2020.  The warning and mitigations departments in the federal system that existed in George W Bush and Barack Obama administrations were dismantled and defunded by Trump.
For weeks, Trump denied the severity of the pandemic.  The NY Times says 70 days were lost.  The ban on Chinese travel was overridden by some 40,000 travelers from China.
The piecemeal, patchwork response by state governors has been in too many cases lacking, ineffectual, or too late.  There is no concerted , focused Federal response.  It is needed.  The only way to slow the pandemic in the US is to shelter in place, wash hands, wear a mask, and socially distance.  The president has only recently admitted that 100,000-240,000 US citizens may likely die in this episode.  He still refuses to wear a mask even though he recommends the citizens do so.  Stopping human interaction is the only way to stop the spread.  There is no vaccine and there are limited tests available.

Stopping human interaction means shutting down a gigantic swath of American business, manufacturing, sales and has thrown huge quantities of people out of work.  But the weaker the national mitigation, the longer the disease goes on and the longer the economy is dismembered.  A stringent national policy is necessary.  The president can only find others to blame while Americans sicken and die

Egregious partisanship

We've all heard the concept that higher voter turnout will cause Democrats to be elected.  Now Trump is tweeting the philosophy: "Republicans should fight very hard when it comes to state wide mail-in voting. Democrats are clamoring for it. Tremendous potential for voter fraud, and for whatever reason, doesn’t work out well for Republicans. @foxandfriends".  Tweeted 04/08/20.

The 'egregious' part is Trump stating up front that vote-by-mail will lead to fewer Republicans elected, and therefore working to stop voting by Americans via mail-in ballot!  

That is to say that Democrats can and should be prevented from voting so R's can stay in power.

This philosophy played out for real yesterday (04/07/20) in Wisconsin where the Democratic Governor was prevented from delaying the combined presidential primary Election and the election of a State Judge by partisan edicts from the Wisconsin State Supreme court and the partisan US Supreme court.  The delay was intended to prevent exposure to voters to the very serious COVID-19 virus,  but running this election at this time was believed by R's to have a better opportunity for their candidate.

The loss of democracy in the US continues.

A partisan fight in Congress is expected over the issue of voting in the rest of 2020.

Double Speak

Remember Hurricane Katrina?  New Orleans? 2005?  It was badly handled by federal, state and local services and 1833 people died.  Fourteen years later recovery is not complete.  Partisan politics crept in to the reaction and decision-making.  LINK.

Federal response to the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, seems controversial at best.  Reports from state officials contradict the Trump/Pence daily briefings as to availability and quantities of equipment shipped.  At the same time, Obamacare is still under attack and possible repeal.  And Obamacare sign-up is being limited (LINK).

The Federal response is slow and lacking.  Many ventilators sent to California from federal disaster stores did not work.  It seems the maintenance contract to keep the stored devices operational was allowed to lapse last summer.  WA governor Jay Inslee said today that a federal response is necessary to provide stringent guidelines and to force US companies to produce gowns, masks, face shields, gloves, etc.  It would appear Trump is unwilling to do anything that might bring criticism and lower his re-election chances.  Florida seems to be receiving everything it needs, and an anonymous White House person reported that that was because Trump believes Florida is key to his re-election. 

The Boston Globe says Trump has "blood on his hands" - LINK.

Response to the pandemic has to be Country first.  We are now on target to expect 100,000-240,000 US fatalities from COVID-19, and that is only if we do maximum mitigation.  The federal response must step up.

The Trump presidency

This novel coronavirus can't be pushed away or covered up or lied about successfully by Trump.  He has a certain set of personality issues and traits that make him most unsuited to manage this ongoing catastrophe.  His actions so far have mostly served to worsen its effects.  The country will suffer and endure, but trump's presidency is likely over.  He cannot manage his way out of this.
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post reviews Trumps mindset toward problems in a recent oped - LINK.
Peter Wehner of The Atlantic shreds trump from several directions - LINK.

Coronavirus  - no let up

The US now has surpassed China in the number of novel coronavirus cases.  China is 4-times more populous than the US.  The US is still increasing in the number of cases and the number of deaths.  The US did not cause the virus but the Trump administration has been a huge contributor to its proliferation in the US.  First there was the dismantling of the epidemic apparatus established under previous administrations, so the epidemic deterrent apparatus and warning systems were gone.

The first case in the US was reported January 20, 2020.  Once the virus hit, Trump talked publicly and privately that the virus was nothing and cases would be zero in a few days.  Thus any response once it started in the US was stymied.  Now, as case numbers climb above those of China, the response by the feds is minimal.  The national prevention is a list of guidelines without tooth or enforcement, so the governors and local leaders have to decide what should be done.  In addition, equipment necessary to keep medical workers safe and working have proven unavailable either due to no early production for prevention since 2016, and now due to lack of distribution from the Feds.

The result is high rates of infection, predictably high death numbers, degradation of the country's economy, and an unpredictable amount of time the populace will be forced to shelter in place.  And trump is talking about opening up the country, meaning return to work and travel and all forms of human interaction, by April 17.  It seems clear that any reduction in shelter in place will cause a big uptick in cases and deaths, while dragging the medical system into continued overload.
Link to article discussing failures.
Link to article discussing Trump's lies.
Link to international and national cases.

Aid bill deceit

A bill ostensibly designed to help bailout out-of-work workers due to induced isolation to stop the spread of coronavirus has stalled...again.  First the bill was drafted in the House on a Friday.  It could not go to the Senate because they went home for a three-day weekend.  All week the bill has been thrashing around the Senate, but passage is defeated by Democrats because of the deceitful content.

In 2008, after the bailout, the lessons supposedly learned were not to hand out money willy-nilly to institutions like banks because we saw in the aftermath that many big institutions used the bailout money incorrectly, like paying bonuses to executives.  The current bill began as a means to help citizens  who found themselves without income and with bills imminent.  The R's ignored the backbone of the bill.  "Democrats say the language would allow for corporations to keep bailout money while still firing workers, that the bailout money would have virtually no restraints and that there are very weak stock buyback restrictions.  A senior Democratic aide told NBC News that Democrats are concerned that the bill lacks specific provisions to protect people from evictions, foreclosure or forbearance and that it would allow for only three months of unemployment insurance." LINK

"Democrats are arguing that the Republican proposal does not do enough to prioritize workers over corporations. One of the outstanding issues for Democrats is the $500 billion “Exchange Stabilization Fund,” which is designed to assist industries that have been hit hard by the coronavirus, including $58 billion for airlines and cargo. The GOP proposal would mostly prevent companies that accept the money from buying back their own stock.

But that restriction could be waived by the Treasury Secretary — a source of significant contention for Democrats, who object to provisions that allow Mnuchin to withhold the names of the companies that receive federal money — as well as the amount — for up to six months at his discretion.
Democrats are also arguing that the package doesn’t do enough to prevent layoffs and that a two-year time frame on executive compensation limits is not enough.
In addition, Democrats are pushing for unemployment provisions to last four months instead of three and include independent contractors, hundreds of billions for both hospitals and a 'State Stabilization Fund' to assist states with loss of revenue and expanded provisions for more worker protections." LINK

It will probably be today that Trump and Fox News accuse Democrats of delaying the bill. Speaker Pelosi has threatened to write her own.  After all, do the airlines and the cruise ship lines really need a bailout.

The 2008 bailout put the national financial structure back on track.  This bailout should not be for corporations.  It should be for the suddenly unemployed.

Trump virus obfuscation

Trump has gone from ignoring the novel coronavirus to calling it a non-issue to saying it's under control in the US to finally declaring a national emergency.  He has yet to activate speedy federal resources to protect health workers by providing personal protective equipment (PPE).  He went so far as to say the US government is not a "shipping clerk".  Actually the US is well known for it's rapid response logistics.  Trump, while activating the Defense Production Act, has yet to implement it because companies that might be impacted have requested they not be interrupted in their business.  Health workers are clamoring for help in protecting themselves while they treat the sick.

Here are two links nicely put together to compare Trumps statements as time has gone by.  They both clearly illustrate his bad management of the situation.  And remember that even before his inauguration, there was a table top activity focusing on the advance of a global pandemic.  In spite of the information, trump cut funding and eliminated positions of offices that were working on the handling of world pandemic.

LINK1 - Series of videos of Trump statements

LINK2 - Calendar of trump mis-statements - good quick summary

Coronavirus and Trump

Trump has lied and lied about the virus.  He has refused responsibility for aspects of it's spread and the Feds failure to control it.  Now he has gone the other way and proclaimed himself a "wartime' president.

Severe worldwide epidemics come along regularly about every three to four years, like SARS, MERS, Bird Flu, Swine Flu, Ebola, Zika, and now COVID-19; the novel coronavirus.  The US was a leader in research and prevention of these epidemic diseases, but during Trump's rein funding has been cut for all aspects of this work.  For that he claims no responsibility. 

Then when the China COVID-19 epidemic started, he chose to ignore it and, even when cases started to show up in the US, he refused to count them, like the first cruise ship, and said soon we'd be at zero cases.  All lies told because that's what he wants to believe.  Now there are over 5,000 cases in the US and the number is growing.  He's finally listening to our experts and now he acts perfectly well informed.

Testing is still way behind and the experts say the only way to know what is happening is to test, test, test.  The immediate concern is that health services will be rapidly overwhelmed.  Most US hospitals are privately run for profit and do not have lots of empty beds and facilities.  They build to suit the average need to keep costs down.  Health care workers are at risk themselves without tests for patients and themselves.  Any potential vaccine is 12-18 months away.  Now we are under loose quarantine to prevent spreading the disease.  Simultaneously, bars, restaurants and other business are curtailed or closed.  The economy is in freefall and people are in jeopardy of missing payments for rent, medicines and food.  LINK.

We have a long way to go.

Biden & Bernie

Super Tuesday #1 and #2 have rolled.  The results are significantly in favor of Obama's Vice President Joe Biden.  The debate between the two happened between the two primary events.  Biden did good.  It appears voters have strongly selected Biden over Bernie to beat Trump.  The difference between Bernie and Biden showed up clearly during their debate. Therein Bernie continued to espouse his overall healthcare revolution as the fix for coronavirus, while Biden talked about emergency measures placed into effect during a pandemic 'war'.  Biden pointed out that Italy has medicare for all but is clearly suffering from the effects of the pandemic and medicare for all was not a significant prevention.
Bernie chooses to continue his revolution and carry his progressive program forward.  There's no doubt that Bernie has pushed his agenda onto America successfully and pushed Hillary and Biden to the left in their platforms.  Not too shabby.

However it is time for Bernie to rethink his presidential bid.  The Democratic Party needs to coalesce to oust Trump before this country disappears altogether.
The overwhelming delegate count for Joe Biden is clear evidence that Bernie needs to drop out of the race.  Bernie will not be the nominee.  Oddly, the coronvirus provides an exit strategy for Bernie.  He should drop out and leave Biden as the sole candidate thus making further primaries unnecessary.  Bernie could humbly exit to prevent the public massing of voters during the pandemic.  He could gain martyr points and be heroic, or he can keep the division and the antipathy in foment and stir his supporters to cause trump to be re-elected.

Check out an article by Kaplan in Slate -LINK

Ballot time

The ever-churning Democratic presidential primary in Washington is upon us.  This is the weekend that people will do their voting.  Remind yourself and your friends and family to vote.

Be aware, that of that long list of Democrats, only 3 remain:
Joe Biden
Bernie Sanders
Tulsi Gabbard

All the others have dropped out.

So the choice has to be whether you think Bernie or Biden can beat Trump.  The Rs think Bernie is easier for Trump to beat.
Secondly, the consideration is which one do you think has the principles, performance, and plans that you prefer - Bernie the democratic-socialist progressive or Joe Biden with his long record of centrist political accomplishments.

If you are up a stump about picking either, or neither, choose "Uncommitted".  Delegates in the Uncommitted category will pick the best choice in Milwaukee, and you will still have made a valid voting choice rather standing on the sidelines.

Encouragement to beat Trump

Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald  says we can beat Trump in 2020 for several reasons - we just have to knuckle down and vote and encourage everyone to vote.  After all, Trump is not a popular president, he is scandal-ridden from sex accusations to impeachment, and he lost the popular vote.  "The machinery of authoritarianism is assembling itself before our eyes, and this is our one chance to stop it."  Read the piece at LINK.

What happens to delegates of drop-outs

Several Democratic presidential candidates have recently dropped out of the race.  Namely, Elizabeth Warren, Tom Steyer, Mike Bloomberg, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar.  What happens to their delegates? 

Their delegates were loosely committed to them but not totally.  It was expected they would vote for the candidate they were pledged to but not for certain. So the door is open to vote for whomever by those delegates at this point.  "Under party rules, the convention's first ballot is decided solely by the 3,979 delegates chosen by primaries and caucuses."  The win number is 1991.  But prior to the convention, "candidates are free to woo each others' delegates.  And delegates are free to switch, especially if the candidate they support has dropped out of the race."  This whole situation and the impact on voters in the general is weel covered in an op/ed by Doyle McManus of the LA Times.  LINK.

The still changing primary

Just as it looked like the Democratic field of centrist presidential candidates was going to split their portion of the primary vote and ALL go under, history happened.  Just prior to the South Carolina primary a mass exodus occurred.  Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer, and Masyor Mike Bloomberg all dropped out leaving the race to Bernie & Biden - one progressive, one centrist.  Wowser!

That left the 14-state Super Tuesday voting essentially between two people in a real horse race.  Tuesday came, and Biden stepped ahead of Sanders..

Now Sen Elizabeth Warren has given it up.

Many Democrats are relieved to have the total race able to be visualized between two candidates - and 2 different candidates.  Tulsi? you ask.  Yup she's still in the race with Joe and Bernie.

So now we have two old (so much for the ageism issue) white (so much for the race issue) men (so much for the sexism issue) that make it lots easier for the electorate.  Now there's only two people, two broad principles, and which one can defeat Trump?  

The changing Presidential primary

No, Trump didn't drop out (damn), but several of the Democratic candidates have seen their path forward is too limited.  In fact it has appeared recently that Bernie is getting all the progressive votes (delegates) and the pack of Democratic centrist is having to split the delegates for centrist nominee among several candidates.  So as these people in the pack drop out, a better balance is achieved between Bernie; the Progressive, and the remaining centrist; the front-runner being Joe Biden.

Two things to consider in all this -

1. Wait to ink your primary ballot until after Super Tuesday to see who remains in the race.  As of 03/02/20, many candidates appear on your ballot, but only the following candidates are really still left:
Joe Biden
Mike Bloomberg
Tulsi Gabbard
Bernie Sanders
Elizabeth Warren
Uncommitted

2. Vote Uncommitted if you lack a better choice.  Yes, uncommitted is still an option.  If you are a die-hard Mayor Pete, or Amy Klobuchar, or whomever, supporter and would risk not voting at all rather than vote for the remaining choices, consider voting "Uncommitted".  For every 15% of votes that are "Uncommitted", one Uncommitted delegate from Washington State is created.  Delegates in Milwaukee that are Uncommitted have license to band together and vote for whomever is the best choice for the nominee.  It is more than likely that Uncommitted delegates will not vote for Bernie in Milwaukee or they would have done so at the outset.

Factoids: 
Super Tuesday is tomorrow - March 03, 2020
14 states participate in delegate selection
1375 delegates are in play
1991 delegate votes are required to win the nomination
3979 total delegate votes are available.
Less than 200 delegates are committed thus far.

The winner of Super Tuesday is going to be difficult to beat.

Bernie qualms?

Do you kinda like what Bernie Sanders says he wants to accomplish but something still puts you off the man?  Lots of people have this reaction and an article in the New York Times by David Brooks reveals what you may be sensing about Bernie.

Bernie is a Populist - that is one who is fighting a class struggle between the common man and the elite citizens, and never the twain shall meet or agree.  It's Revolution all the way, baby! 

This is not a healing point of view for the USA.  We already have too much separating us in racist beliefs, climate change beliefs, religious beliefs, political party fears, etc.  Certainly the uber rich have too much control and pay too little taxes.  The easiest example to cite is that the tax percentage was up to 90% in the 1950's and that government tax income was what built the nations freeways and infrastructure.  The rich have been allowed to take their money out of the tax base and out of this country.  But a class struggle is only as good as the armed revolution that can win it. And an armed revolution went out in 1776.  We have the Constitution and other great documents and legislation that define our great nation in very democratic terms.

Brooks says, "Populists like Sanders speak as if the whole system is irredeemably corrupt. Sanders was a useless House member and has been a marginal senator because he doesn’t operate within this system or believe in this theory of change."  That's what you're sensing in Bernie - he's calling everyone corrupt and that's insulting.  Moreover he hasn't gotten anything done in his long political career.  His oppoents are accusing his followers of meanness and saying he engenders that in them. 
And calling himself a Socialist Democrat does nothing but inflame and terrify anyone but Bernie Bros.  Socialism is thought of as communism and that has a nasty connotation.  In fact Socialism in a great many instances is necessary and expected, and prevents excess wealth disparity in a democracy - a situation we need relief from today.

Socialism or socialistic attributes exist in so many instances right now:
The Military
Police
Fire
Roads
Medicare
Medicaid
Public everything

Every other modern country has what is called "socialized Medicine", or healthcare for all and it costs personal tax dollars, but cover everyone and in most cases is cheaper that the insurance and out of pocket costs borne by most people.  But in 2020's world, we can't call it that - "socialisim" is a dirty adjective although it means to us in the US "public".  Obamacare set out to be the framework for socialized medicine in htis country but the R's don't want their precious insurance comy incomes to degrade.  And the well-off don't have a concern bout people with no insurance.  If you're well-off, you can go to major clinics and get outstanding treatment.

So, Bernie or the Cult of Bernie?  Read the opinion of David Brooks of the New York Times and see what you agree with.  LINK.

Surprise > Amy endorsed

The Democratic presidential candidates getting all the publicity are the front-runners and the billionaires.  But here's three very significant endorsements for Senator Amy Klobuchar for President - The New York Times (they co-endorsed), the San Francisco Chronicle, and the Seattle Times.  It's interesting that these have been generated so quietly.
The NY Times article reviews all the candidates and why they ruled them out.  It makes  a very good read.  LINK. They endorse both Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar; one as a progressive and one as more moderate.  Both are seen as capable of reversing Trump policies.
The San Francisco Chronicle endorsed Amy as Experiences, Tough, and sensitive.  They added a couple generalized paragraphs about the other candidates similarities, and a negative nod to Biden, Buttigieg, and Sanders.  The negatives about them were similar to those offered by the NY Times, and well-deserved. LINK.
The Seattle Times Reviewed Amy's record and endorsed her.  LINK.

As the NY Times said, "May the best woman win".

WA Primary oaths and good info

Who and why to utilize the Washington State Presidential Primary Ballot - It's not a vote, really, it's a process.  participate by declaring a Party preference or if disinclined, don't turn your ballot form.  This is a good article and gives some insights to the whys and wherefores of the Washington State approach. LINK.

We've arrived...and it ain't pretty

Back in the distant days of President George W. Bush and VP Cheney, some political pundit surmised that the Bush administration was fast-tracking the nation to hell.  Well, look at America now!.  We've arrived.  This is hell.  This president and his cohorts and his Republican party are stomping the Constitution and running roughshod over the law, immigrants, farmers, Democrats, the Judicial system, trace equality, wealth equality, the environment, and the future.  He says he can do anything he wants...and he does.  And it ain't good.
Here's a link to a Rachel Maddow video where she speaks very seriously about the ditch we've been driven into. We must rid ourselves of trump and Barr and the crooked people in our federal government.  LINK.  It's short, and chilling.

GOP census fraud

The GOP sent out a fraudulent copy of the Governmental census form to take their own census. LINK. 
The form is very similar to the real census form in color, and question format. The concern is first that the use of the word "Census" is illegal on anything but a government envelope.  Secondly, people may be confused by the imitation form and think they have porperly participated in the census and not actually fill out the real census form when it comes later this year.

The census is imoortant to provide an accurate head count for legislative districting,

Trump learned...

The question was recently raised to Republicans, "Do you think trump has learned a lesson from being impeached?"  The answer came back that he was chastened.  Not so.  He has been empowered by his acquittal to do anything that comes to his tiny mind.  He now purports to be the chief law enforcement officer in the land.

Barr said on a TV interview recently that trumps tweets about the unfairness of Roger Stone's trial, conviction, and sentencing was making it hard for Barr to do his job.  Immediately after trump's tweet, Barr had immediately gone to work to get his people to change the sentencing recommendation from Justice.  The difficulty for Barr is that his job is to do trump's bidding and trumps public tweets bring attention to Barr's unscrupulous maneuvering.  Trump's public tweet about Stone brought enough attention that it was discovered that Barr has been working to help all of trump's convicted friends.

Barr's early commitment when he took this job as Attorney General was to expand the powers of the President and make him more powerful.   Why he thinks this is a good thing to do is yet unknown.  This only is a wrong-minded approach, especially in the case of trump who only increases his abuse of law and the Constitution. Democracy and the Constitution are being cast aside. 

Undecided?

Presidential Primary - who to vote for?  One criteria - who can beat Trump?!  After all, any of them will be sooo much better than trump. 
But, unless you're a Bernie fan, you're not sure who to vote for.  The way the delegate process has shaped up post Iowa and New Hampshire puts Bernie in the lead and Mayor Pete second with the field of Amy, Elizabeth, Mike, and Joe all lumped together as a distant third.  Not good if you're a conservative Democrat to have the conservative field so split.  Bloomberg has suggested all others quit and leave it to him.  They scoffed. 
Bernie can't get enough votes in the General Election to beat trump.  That makes it important to get significant delegates signed-on to whomever can beat Trump. 
The field may self-winnow after March 3's Super Tuesday when a lack of significant number of voters and delegate count may induce some to give up the fight and make it easier for voters.

But if that doesn't happen there is a catch-all category that would allow whomever comes out of this still crowded conservative field and that is "Uncommitted".  A vote on March 10 for "Uncommitted", if large enough, can send significant number of Washington State delegates to the Milwaukee Convention and they can band together and pick the right nominee.  They likely won't choose Bernie or they would have done so initially.  Consider using the "Uncommitted" choice to our advantage.

17th LD Senate Candidate

Democrat Daniel Smith has announced his run for 17th Legislative District Senator, against incumbent Lynda Wilson.  Soft-spoken, congenial well-organized Daniel will make a strong run for the seat.  He is amassing a strong team of family, friends, and professionals.  His press release is as follows:

Daniel Smith 17th LD Senate Candidate

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In our faces...

The corruption level at the White House jumped up a notch over the last several days.  Trump has tweeted his unhappiness with the proposed sentence of his criminally convicted friend Roger Stone.  Stone was convicted of lying to Congress and obstructing  a federal investigation.  Federal prosecutors recommended a 7-9 year sentence.  When Trump advanced his opinion on the severity and necessity, Bill "The Walrus" Barr interceded, as is his wont to act as Trump's personal cleaner, and pushed for moderation.  Four Federal prosecutors resigned over the unjust interference by their their boss, so-called Attorney General, Bill Barr. LINK.

Trump has not been chastened by impeachment, he has been emboldened.  The corruption is out there now and in our faces.  He can do whatever he wants.

Jerry Nadler, head of the House Judiciary Committee has scheduled Barr to testify March 31. That will be amusing at least.  How many ways can Barr find to obfuscate this set of circumstances?

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WA Delegate Events - Prez Primary

Want to be instrumental in the selection of the Democratic Presidential nominee?  There's a process that's been used by Washington State Democrats for several election cycles.  First the number of Delegates to the Milwaukee, WI National Convention is set by the DNC.  For Washington State in 2020, the number is 107 delegates and 7 alternates.
Going to the National Convention is exciting and many people have the desire and the wherewithal to attend and participate in the voting for the Presidential nominee.  There are other ways to participate, however, like being a State Delegate and voting on who actually goes to the National Convention.
Delegates to the National Convention are selected at both the Congressional District Caucuses and the State Convention.
Delegates to the CD Caucuses and the State Convention are chosen at the Legislative District Caucuses and vote on National Delegates.

The graphic below shows the path and timing for all delegate events.  It also mentions that Delegates to the State Convention participate in the preparation of the State Democratic Platform.

It shows the LD Caucuses are April 26, and the 3rd CD caucus is May 30 with the State Convention being June 12-14 and the National on July 13-16.
At this writing, locations for the LD Caucuses and the CD Caucuses have not been confirmed.  The State Convention will be in Tacoma.  It is normally expected that being a Delegate elected at the LD Caucus represents a commitment to attend both the CD Caucus and the State Convention.

A Letter of Intent is mentioned below and that refers to submitting a form letter to the State stating your desire to become a National Delegate and registering a commitment to do so if elected.  The Letter of Intent to be a National Delegate can be found and printed at LETTER LINK by going to page 107 of the document.

Click to set custom HTML

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Cult of Trump, Iowa, & SOTU

Impeachment Result.  Well, the 'weasely' Republican senators did their most bad, most stupid vote on Wednesday and acquitted Trump.  Why?  It is conjectured mostly for selfish re-election purposes.  And for fear of Trump.  He's mean to those who stand up to him. It was cowardly and immoral.  They totally ignored their oath of Office and the Oath prior to the Impeachment Trial.

The danger is that this paves the way for gross misconduct by any president.  Certainly Trump will continue to abuse his power in the upcoming months.  He has no scruples.  Future presidents now have the opportunity to operate unbridled via phony "executive privilege", and could escape possible impeachment and Congressional oversight altogether.
As school children have learned for decades in junior high there are three defined branches of government in the UIS as defined by the Constitution.  They are Judicial, Executive, and Legislative.  They are designed to each have some control over the other to enable none to operate unilaterally and thereby usurping unwarranted power.  It is called a system of "Checks and Balances".  But that oversight capability just got got trashed.  The Executive can now run as a dictatorship.  This is the doom of our democracy.
The Justice Department - the highest police and law enforcement in the land, is run by Bill Barr who has completely given over the choice of what's right and what's wrong to Trump.  The Judicial is be infiltrated very heavily by pro-right judges appointed by the Senate Republicans.  These people are not interested in the middle class, the principles of democracy or Democrats.  Be afraid.

We have to vote this dictatorial madman out of office in November - he gave the Presidential Medal of Honor to Rush Limbaugh, for God's sake - and replace him with someone with the brains and strength to oust these corrupt thieves.

Iowa Caucuses.  You try something new and it doesn't always work, but in Iowa, the attempt was for the right reasons.  They wanted to simplify the reporting from all over the state and they were offered a smart-phone App that didn't work completely and the whole process was delayed amidst cries and screams, and hours more work.  It was unfortunate for the candidates who wanted to make a big showing of results in this the first primary event of the 2020 Presidential election season.  It must have been a little disappointing to all those Iowans who worked so hard to make the event functional and anticipated a rapid publication of the results of their hard work and meaningful dialogue.  But it wasn't the end of the world and it didn't exhibit any real lack of ability by Iowans or the Democratic Party, and the slow return of the numbers did not deserve the awful castigation of the process heaped upon it by the mean, caustic, and snide Rs.  On to New Hampshire, Mayor Pete!

State of the Union Address.  Now that was a debacle!  Trump refused to shake hands with Speaker Pelosi at the outset.  Trump lied from the first paragraph and every one that followed.  His facts were lies, the things he said he stood for were lies, lies, lies.  LINK to Fact Checks. It was insulting and downright nauseating.
He said he'd never let socialism take over health care.  A few years ago, we could talk about socialized medicine as being the course of action  to aspire to in this country, as has been done in all other 1st world countries.  Now, or once again, 'socialism' has become a dirty catchword used by Rs to scare the electorate into to opposite action.  It is synonymous with communism and Russian takeover in people's minds and used to incite fear.  We know how the Rs treat healthcare - they want to abolish it.  How many  dozen times did they vote to abolish Obamacare?  Obamacare - the Affordable Care Act - was supposed to be an iterative, stair-stepping plan to get us to universal, single-payer healthcare for everybody.  It was a ladder and we got to the first rung and the Rs got out their swas and nearly wrecked the whole ladder.  They don't mind if people are sick. or going broke trying to pay for their medicines and surgeries.  if it's a worker, just hire another and let that sick one go away.  The people with the money have unbeileable - think too much to ever use - and don't wan to to opart with a single oenny.  Be reminded that the tax laws in this country used to tax the incomes up to 90%.  Democracy doewsn't work over time without some socialism aspects or wealth disparity, and ensuing power, develops, as we have now.
In his SOTU, Trump also said he would protect the Second Amendment - the right to keep and bear arms.  This roused Fred Guttenberg, sitting in the gallery, and he spoke out in objection.  He was removed from the gallery.  He is the father of a child killed at the Parkland school killing.  This was another trump toss of red meat to the white supremacists and gun-toters in this country, and a refusal to consider safe gun legislation.

And at the end of the speech, Nancy Pelosi took the pages of the speech out of her folder and tore them up on camera.  She said it was all lies.  She's right.

Tanisha Harris announces

Tanisha Harris has announced her candidacy for 17th Legislative District State Representative Position 1, currently held by Vicki Kraft.
Tanisha is a Democrat and a moderate one.  She is a lifelong Clark County resident and is fired up to do right.  To know her is to love her charm, forthrightness, and energy.

Kraft is an anti-vaxxer and anti sex-educator - two merit-less stances.

Tanisha's first fundraiser will be at La Costa Mexican Restaurant Saturday February 22 at 6:00 PM.

Check out Tanisha at ElectTanisha.com

Impeachment progress

The House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees in the persons of the seven Impeachment Managers have done a magnificent job of presenting the case against Trump for impeachment.  Two articles of Impeachment have been presented and masterfully explained:  I. Abuse of power, and II. Obstruction of Congress.
They have run videos of the House Impeachment interviews with the damning evidence supplied by Gordon Sondland, Kurt Volker, Marie Yovanovitch, and Robert Taylor to name a few.  They have  drawn a complete timeline of events of the Ukraine scheme to hold-up approved aid to ally Ukraine until their President issues an announcement of an investigation into the Bidens.  It's clear that Trump did hold up the money to serve his selfish and personal campaign in 2020, and along the way ran roughshod over the likes of good people like Marie Yovanovitch who didn't go along with Trumps corruption of the Ukraine's new corruption-free president.

The Defense has no refutation of any of the facts.  They are only able to lie and cast aspersions on the Democrats and call their motives political.  Trump is a malignant narcissist and did do everything set out in the Impeachment Articles.  The defense is largely obfuscation and claims of illegal process and executive privilege that do not exist.

Eugene Robinson, Washington Post analyst and MSNBC contributor explains many instances of the sham defense in a recent Op/Ed - LINK.

Now that Bolton has been quoted as saying Trump did hold up the money  to wrangle political help from Ukraine, the R's seem a little less sure they can get away without calling witnesses.  It just might make them look bad - like pawns of the corrupt president.  We'll see what happens this week.

There's a global corruption index?!

Oh my, there's a scorecard for a country's level of corruption (the Corruption Perceptions Index), and the US of A is high on the list, having hit a new low in corruption.  Actually the lower you are on the list yields a higher amount of discredit.  So in 2018, the US was number 22, but in 2019 we tied with France for number 23.  First; best, are Denmark and New Zealand.  Low performers have problems with wealth and power where those with wealth
buy elections and , thus, power.  LINK
There's a certain irony here because the article was published by Bloomberg News and the owner, Michael Bloomberg, is spending vast millions to advertise his bid for President in 2020.

What makes a Trumper?

A Trumper is, of course, a person who supports Donald Trump.  And it seems to be not just "support', but highly loyal, cultist support.
Inspect the red-cap motto of a Trumper - "Make America Great Again".  That's one of those clever open-ended pledges that doesn't really describe anything, but allows the listener to fill in their own meaning and essentially make it fit whatever the listener wants to achieve.  So, "greatness" is defined by each listener to fill their own needs and expectations.

One person may deem greatness as less government, another may deem it societal order with people in their assigned places.  Yet another may expect their path to success be cleared in some way; less opposition from undeserving others, perhaps.

The more one ponders the myriad expectations of Trumps "greatness", the more It all sounds like racism in one form or another.  "Great" is a dog-whistle for obedience, hierarchy, bias, ignorance of others needs, and fulfillment of the needs of the Me individual.

Much of what's been seen from Trump depicts and mirrors these attributes.  He's a bully. He's against people of color and Muslims.  He treats women like property.  He belittles and mocks people, and makes overtones of violence toward people. It's all about pushing equality aside and making life disproportionately easier, for deprived white men.  This is the picture imagined from the past - the 50's, say - when equality for people of color, or women, or LBGTQs was still not discussed or legislated.

These concepts are supported in modern analyses like Psychology Today's, "An Analysis of Trump Supporters has identified 5 Key Traits", Bobby Azarian, PhD, Dec 31, 2017 - LINK .

We don't want to be where these people want to be - in a world of suppression, oppression, prejudice, and hate. 

Donald Trump is scarred like OJ

Op/Ed writer, Leonard Pitts, of the Miami Herald, finds that Trump will go unpunished by the Senate in the mockery of a Senate trial because of the Rules - no evidence, no witnesses -  of the trial established by Leader McConnell and the harsh prejudice exhibited by McConnell for Trump.  Irregardless, the indelible stain on trump from the perfect exposure of his quid pro quo political ploys and his defeating of Constitutional checks and balance by obstruction of evidence and witnesses will stick to Trump forever, much in the vein of OJ Simpson's branding as a murderer.

Trump's blatant attempt to blackmail Ukraine into announcing a false investigation into the Biden's in order to throw dirt on Trump's expected biggest competitor in the 2020 Election is now highly visible and, by way of the facts, is indisputable.  The blackmail effort included withholding Congressionally approved aid ($340 million) to Ukraine for their war with Russia, and similarly withholding a White House visit for their newly elected prime Minister - who was elected on a platform of cleaning up corruption in Ukraine.  A white House visit would have buoyed Ukraine's position against Russia.  This was followed by Trump's issuing orders to any first-hand witnesses to no testify and to ignore House subpoenas to do so.  That is clear obstruction of justice and violation of the Constitution. 

The publicity of the House Impeachment, the sham Senate trial, and the clear presentation of the bribery and obstruction facts should haunt Trump for the rest of his days.

Read the Leonard Pitts piece - LINK.

Rep Adam Schiff outstanding

Federal Congressman Adam Schiff from California is the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee and an ex-federal prosecutor in California.

He has done an outstanding job of leading the Intelligence Committee impeachment hearings to produce salient Articles of Impeachment against Donal Trump.  He is the lead House Impeachment Manager in the Senate impeachment trial.  He has done an excellent job of leading, preparing and delivering the impeachment facts, abuses and schemes by Trump to the Senate in the trial.  Of his string of current hits, his Top 40 play is the closing arguments against Trump that he made on Thursday January 23, 2020.  He summarized the facts, and strongly suggested the necessary outcome of the trial that should be determined by the Senate - find Trump guilty and remove him. That speech is shown below:

Vaccinate, please

Science  for vaccination is strong.  17th LD State Representative Vicki Kraft is not so strong.  She wants to deny vaccinations.  The Columbian published a chart of local legislators' priorities (Jan 08, 2020) and Rep Kraft offered the following: "Protect parents' rights regarding sex education and vaccinations".  That means allow no education and no vaccinations.  Here's a political cartoon that also was published in The Columbian (01/12/20):

Trump lies!

[Note:  He just passed 16,00 lies.  Ed.]
All people make mistakes, some people just can't seem to get their information, some people can't tell the truth.  Trump lies about pretty much everything.  He may not lie about what he's going to do, like banning Muslims, or retracting water quality rules, but he definitely lies about the reasons for doing so.  He lies because he believes his own trumped-up statements.  And those statements - lies - tend to make him look good.  He's lied over 15,000 times while in office.  It's so bad, that it's impossible to believe anything he says.  It is one appalling aspect of this administration. - LINK

TAD - got it?

TAD or Trump Anxiety Disorder, is affecting the country.  Chances are you have it.  Symptoms include “increased worry, obsessive thought patterns, muscle tension and obsessive preoccupation with the news.”  Not sleeping as well, snapping at your spouse without reason?  It's that disturbing undercurrent in your psyche that results from having a malignant narcissistic president that despises and derides virtually everybody in the country but mostly Democrats - a president that imprisons immigrant children, sows racial and religious discontent, lies and lies and lies, has lying cronies, destroys air, water and climate, and on and on.

It's that feeling of holding your breath in anticipation of something, anything making a difference and ridding the US of this horribly decimating influence.  It's a documented condition - LINK.

New, different March Prez ballots

We're having a Primary Election on Tuesday March 10, 2020 to name your selection for US President.  .  It's a different kind of ballot than usual - it's Party (Democrat or Republican) oriented.  You don't have to declare your Party, but you do have to select which Party you support in this election.  This will be confusing, or irritating, or perhaps gratifying, to some people.  The point is that one should vote in this election to support their candidate.
Selecting the Democratic page and then picking your candidate from the list of  13 Democrats will supply the WA State Democratic party with a preference count for your candidate throughout the State.   From that count in comparison with all the other candidates, the number of Delegates for that candidate will b calculated.  Those delegates who subsequently support the candidate going forward to the National Convention (Milwaukee WI, July 12, 2020) will be selected initially at local Legislative District Caucuses on March 30.   The final selection of the Democratic nominee will be made at the National Convention in Milwaukee by delegate vote.

The Republican candidate is the Current Occupant of the White House.

The Columbian reported on this ballot process - LINK.

So, plan on seeing a little different ballot, and plan on showing your Party preference, and plan on Voting your choice for new President!

Happy New Year(?)

,Saying "Happy New Year" to another is an act of wishing them a successful life for the upcoming months.  Some are not comfortable with the new year however, for what it brings, and brings so fast.  The entire year seems to be dominated by the specter of a Trump re-election.  Ye gods!  That must not happen.

There are so many issues with the Trump presidency:
   Climate change ignorance.Air and water quality destruction.
   Engendering racial and religious bias and violence.
   Destruction checks and balances between branches of government.
   Impeachment by the House and the very questionable Senate trial.
   Escalation of the national debt (Our own Greg Jayne, Editorial Editor for The Columbian, offers a very simple, understandable primer on the n ational   debt - LINK)
   Impetuous killing of the Iranian General Qassem Soleimani (Read Trump's 'logic' - LINK)

That's a broad, but incomplete list.

The Democratic presidential field has some great people in it - perhaps no one of them is incapable of being at least moderately successful, and certainly better than Trump.  But voters are looking for someone with a little soul, a little gravitas and lots of brains - like Obama, or a Kennedy.  Somebody they can get behind.  But the other consideration, which is almost counter to the popularity question is:  "Can they beat Trump?".  If we find popularity in a woman or a person of color, can the country find their way to voting them in over the Trump incumbent?  After all, it is surmised that Trump's rise and elect-ability was in backlash to a black man in the White House.

The action needed is to get out the talk about the election; to get the positivity of the Democratic candidates focused against the horrible, awful issues connected with the Republicans and Trump.  Everyone has to be a spokesperson for the Democratic principles engendered by the party and the candidates, and ultimately the nominee. 

The biggest area of disagreement on the campaign trail is the way health care should be handled going forward.  What we used to call "Socialized medicine" is always the goal to achieve - like every other first world nation on the planet.  But do we get there tomorrow or over a reasonable time, or a very long time?  From the treatment of ACA, or Obamacare, by the Republicans it seems obvious that we as a country are not unified on how or what should happen.  The R's wanted to repeal ACA.  It seems there are too many people selling insurance, limiting insurance, making and selling prescription drugs that are making big bucks in the health industry that are unwilling to give up their positions, and dollars, even though they are bilking the populace.

Okay, so consider the long term approach - and then wonder if due to the resistance, can medicare for all ever be accomplished?  After all, ACA was supposed to be the first rung of a ladder that we'd climb with successively built rungs to accomplish medicare for all (single payer) eventually.

That approach is juxtaposed against the plan to implement slam bang in 2021, and just jump right to the ultimate end.  But people are expressing fear with that - that they'll lose their doctor, their insurance, their health care altogether.  Change, especially big change, is scary.   And with the R's pushing back so hard it's possible the whole process would get stymied anyway.  It's necessary for the country to have a real goal and  that goal be a common one.  These things come from the top - like Kennedy saying, "We're going to the moon."  We need a real leader who cares about the country and the future and can do things like demand a halt to fossil fuel consumption, not call for the resurrection of  coal.  Get trump out, get out the vote.

Impeachment facts vs. emotions

Dana Milbank of tthe Washington Post contrasts the Democrat's impeachment facts versus the Rep[ublican's emotional blather and does, sadly, show that many people who are trumpian will be able to "shrug" off the impeachment as "Oh, well" and give it no merit.  LINK
Truly the facts describe a constitutional violation and objective people can find impeachment clearly valid given the factual substance.  The cult of Trump can say "So what"..  The tenor, or undercurrent(perhaps by wishful thinkinking pundits) is that some Republican Senators when faced with the evidence and their Oath of Office, may find their moral feet and side with impechment.

Others are finding that the "IMPEACHED" label does emotionally cause them to diminish the President's words and action: he's a little more discountable becuase of the detrimental quality of the impeachment label.  Let's hope so!

Christmas

The chipmunk's song says "Christmas comes but once a year".  Many would say "Whew, once a year is plenty.  It's a lot of work"  It is a lot of work and the movies depict the often negative interactions between family members.  So there's trauma and anxiety associated with such a big holiday.  But when it's all settled around midnight Christmas Eve, it's pretty warm and comfortsable.  It's a job well done and a time to come together and give a little something to a loved one.  So whether you're into Christmas for the celebration of the birth of Christ or just involved in the pagan aspects of St Nick and decorated trees and a yule log, find the moments of relaxation, enjoy it, and wish yourself and your family and pals a very "Merry Christmas".

Unbelievable Senate

The Democratic-majority House of Representatives comported themselves with grace, thoroughness, and speed.  They brought Trump to a  state of
Impeachment based on facts, in spite of the President preventing witnesses to testify and himself offering no defense. As many Congressman point out in interviews, they did their constitutional duty.

The Republican-majority Senate is, by the Constitution, required to provide a trial of the President on the Impeachment charges.  A trial is, by definition, a fair and honest discourse by prosecutors and defenders using facts to make a case for the defendant's guilt or innocence.  The jury in an Impeachment trial is the body of Senators using a two-thirds vote to remove the President from office.

The Senators, Republican Senators, that is, have thrown up consistent roadblocks and statements that defy any form of fair proceedings.  McConnell, majority leader, said on Fox News he and the Senate would "coordinate with the President's lawyers".  There is nothing fair about having the jury work with the defense's attorneys.  Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post pulls together several bewildering comments from the Senate.  LINK.  

In the meantime Speaker Pelosi is not formally releasing the Articles of Impeachment until she can get some satisfaction that the Senate rules will provide a fair trial.

Some had hopes that a few Republican Senators will truly respect their Oath of Office and consider the Constitutional transgressions by Trump with care and deliberation.  Let's keep hoping that will be so.

Unbelievable R's

The Cult of Trump is strong and irresponsible - and lying, deceitful, and full of obfuscation.  The Republican Party has clearly put themselves in the position of ignoring country, and totally absorbing politics and what politics can do for them.  Sadly, the R's used to exhibit strong beliefs in morals and country, but no longer.

"Leaders" like Trump, Bill Barr, Mike Pompeo, and Mitch McConnell have lost their moral compasses.  They say and do anything to further their agenda items of personal wealth; more wealth for the rich; no constraints for industry regarding employee rights, water and air quality; education for the masses; women's equality and rights; rights of brown and black people, especially immigrants, and on and on.

Now in the face of impeachment they push back with irrational and smokescreen rhetoric that belies belief.  Any trust in any R is gone and will be a long time being regained.

McConnell said after the impeachment vote that the impeachment set a “toxic new precedent that will echo well into the future.”  (LINK.)  Odd. that's the same phrase used in the statements FOR impeachment by the witnesses - that Trump's bad behavior sets a precedent for the future that destroys the Constitution and democracy.

There is clear doubt that the Senate can or will run a fair trial, which is, of course, their Constitutional duty.  Speaker Pelosi appears to have some leverage as to when she releases the Article of Impeachment to the Senate - until the rules and leaders of the trail are made clear and agreed upon.  But in the meantime the R's scream fraud and that the Speaker is not releasing the Articles because they are illegal or useless. or invalid.

We are witnessing a clear, ugly downward turn in America's morality that can only be turned by getting Trump out of office - and even then it will be a long uphill battle to get back to a true moral footing where County First is really the direction.

Impeached

Dec 18, 2019.  The 45th President of the United States was impeached on 2 counts at 8:00 PM Wednesday December 18, 2019.  The counts are dscribed in the New York Times as follows:
"The first article charges him with abuse of power for pressuring Ukraine to assist him in his re-election campaign by damaging Democratic rivals. The second article charges him with obstruction of Congress for blocking testimony and refusing to provide documents in response to House subpoenas in the impeachment inquiry." LINK

A rally in Vancouver last night on the eve of the vote House impeachment vote drew about 600 impeachment supporters to Esther Short
Park.  The article on the rally in The Columbian described Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler's view of the impeachment as follows:
"Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, announced last week that she planned to vote against both articles, citing a “rushed timeline” by Democratic leadership that prevented Congress from hearing testimony from firsthand witnesses in the president’s inner circle.
“House committee chairs were unwilling to press the subpoenas on witnesses who could have provided firsthand accounts of the president’s actions, and instead relied on witnesses who’d never even met the president, could only provide secondhand testimony, and offered assumptions based on what they say they heard, Herrera Beutler said in a written statement Friday." LINK

This is deceitful on the Congresswoman's part.  The reason "firsthand" witnesses were not interviewed is because Trump prevented them from testifying, which is the very reason for the second Article of Impeachment.

The next step will be a trial by the Senate to determine whether Trump will be removed from office.  House Majority leader Mitch "Moscow" McConnell has already stated on Fox news that the Senate will work in lockstep with the White House, which, of course, flies in the face of any fair trial. LINK

The Trump circus will continue.

Impeachment summary

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post pulls together simply the reasons for the current impeachment of Trump - and deservedly.  The Senate will do whatever it does for whatever reasons it can drum up.  Trump will be impeached this week and he deserves it.  It's imperative that the work be done by every thinking individual to elect someone other than Trump.  LINK

Facts?!

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post (12/10/19) put together the impeachment facts offered by the Democrats and the non-facts offered by the R's.  It's very clear from the article, or from the hearings if you've been watching them, that the Dems are following their Constitutional conscience and the R's are following the Cult of Trump.  At some point the lies of the R's and their obfuscation will catch up to them.

The facts offered by the Democrats in this impeachment are for a particular instance of Trump's violation of the Constitution.  There are numerous others which may not show such a clear-cut case, but there are others.  And there are hints of more where the true facts are concealed.  As Nancy Pelosi said, "All roads lead to Putin".  LINK

It's happening!

The House Judiciary Committee has prepared two articles of impeachment on President Donald J. Trump and announced them to the world.  They will be brought before the full House and voted on next week.Assuming that vote passes then the impeachemetn will be official and the trial will go to the Senate to decide whether Trtump should be removed from office.

The articles are, 1) Trump has abused the powers of the the Presidency by soliciting a foreign power to assist in the 2020 election via finding or implying dirt on the Bidens in return for Ukraine being released to Ukraine, ad 2) obstructing Congress in an investigation by refusing subpoenas on witnesses. 
The facts are clear especially via the president's release of the notes of the phone call to Ukraine's President Zelensky ands via numerous informed witnesses that did testify.  Similarly the obstruction Article is unarguable.

The Democrats reason, logically, that the "high crimes and misdemeanors" are clear and if not acted upon via House impeachment would be negligence of Constitutional duty by the House.  The Republicans profess that the process is illegitimate or flawed, or that the Presidents actions are okay for him to do.  Poppycock!  If this President is allowed to get away with these acts, he and any future president can behave similarly without any control by Congress, - which is the checks and balance system designed into the Constitution by the Founding Fathers.

What will the Senate d?  Can enough Republican Senators find their feet and discover their Oath of Office to uphold the Constitution and vote Trump out?  Let's hope so.  Certainly, if the situation was reversed, i.e., Pres Bill Clinton lying over a brief sexual encounter, the R's would, and did, show up with pitchforks and impeach.  In Clinton's case the Senators did not find his offense significant enough to cause his removal.  In this case the facts are very clear.  n fact Trump had his lawyer, Giuliani, in Ukraine last week during the impeachment hearings to continue pressuring Ukrainians to offer accusations against the Bidens.  Trump is guilty 10 times over.

And then there's Bill Barr, the highest lawman in the land.  Barr is so involved in the Cult of Trump that he lies and deceives to protect Trump.  Barr held up distribution of the damning Mueller Report and even put out a deceitful, misleading four-page memo drawing incorrect conclusions from the Report, and using it to demonstrate Trump's innocence. Now Barr is arguing against his own people to say that the FBI is disingenuous and people reporting on the Russia 2016 election interference are misguided at least.  The country has slipped into rampant corruption which the Republicans appear to think is okay.

Impeachment cause plain

The constitutional violations that deserve impeachment are plain.  There's the bribery phone call, the illegal hold-up of congressionally approved funds for Ukraine. and the obstruction of justice failure to respond to respond to Congressional subpoena.  Plain for all to see, except the R's.

Eugene Robinson (11/26/19 Washington Post) commends the stalwart federal employees who have come forward to provide stinging, truthful testimony and statements concerning Trumps disrespect of the law.  He does ask why it took them so long.  Perhaps it's the crack in the dam that being s to split, and int his case we hope the split and the spill are logarithmic. LINK

Mike Pompeo - Have you been watching him in interviews? - is a concealer and a liar.  he was on the damning phone call between Trump and Zelensky but doesn't admit it.  Testimony of Fiona Hill and Gordon Sondland clearly implicates Pompeo in the entire quid pro quo enterprise.  And Pompeo won't stand up for his State Department people like Marie Yovanovitch.  Jennifer Rubin (Washington Post 11/20/19) list facts of Pompeo's involvement and describes the need for Pompeo to testify.  LINK.

Inexplicable GOP response

Trump's "defenders would rather walk through fire in gasoline-soaked underwear than admit the truth of his malfeasance", says Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald (11/22/19) - LINK.  It's unbelievable.  They get what they want of their agenda by clinging to him.  And to admit he's wrong now would mean their strident defense of him to date has been wrong and thereby the GOP would be wrong - so they are defending themselves. 

The evidence is in - from Gordon Sondland who says "everybody was in the loop", and there "was a quid pro quo".  Fiona Hill points out that Ukraine did not tamper with the 2016 elections, Russia did.  And the Senators have been schooled in that fact by DOD. LINK

It's really important from legal and constitutional points of view that Trump be impeached by the House and tried and removed from office by the Senate.  He is truly horrible and has brought out the worst in his supporters - white nationalism - and his party, and undone any positive directions the country was taking - air & water pollution, climate change, Iran nuclear, Syria, etc.  Continuation of the path the US is on, with or without Trump, will see the end of this country as it was designed and bring about continued division, hatred, toxicity (physical and political), and minimized world standing.  So many instances have occurred where Trump has thrown the game to Putin - election hacking, Syria and the Kurds, Ukraine support, and sanctions.  If he's not in bed with Putin, he's just incredibly naive [stupid].  The country is dying here and it feels like an inexorable slide to and new and very ugly paradigm.

Bad Beutler

Congresswoman Jaime Beutler misrepresents [lies] about the facts of the current Trump impeachment inquiry.  She spouts the Republican party line [lie] about the proceedings.  She says Democratic leaders are holding private meetings in some of the Capitol’s most secretive rooms, are held.  That is a misrepresentation..  The initial interviews by the House Intelligence Committee with witnesses are held in the SCIF, a secure conference room in the Capitol basement designed to prevent spying an intrusion and created for this purpose.  The interviewing committee is strictly BI-partisan comprised of Democrats and Republicans.  Information received may be classified, but if not is released the next day, of late.  Link.

More impeachment info -

The Columbian Opinion Editor, Greg Jayne, recently asked, "Is this the last gasp of the GOP?".  He reached out to local Republican office holders for their opinions on Trump, and in an unusual way - he promised them anonymity for honesty.  They all expressed their dislike of Trump.  They responded that , "It's difficult to be a Republican in the Trump era", and "Integrity, compassion" are replaced with "self-aggrandizement".  Will it end the R's?  Doubtful, but the result of standing up for the man when GOP electeds know in their hearts that he is illegal and awful will not fail to leave a significant blot on the Republican Party in the minds of voters.  LINK.

Here's a nifty little summary of the impeachment progress so far.  It's from NPR by Domenico Montanaro.  It covers the facts pretty well and offers some innuendoes.  The whistle-blower has become unnecessary at this point because all of the suspect activities he/she pointed out have been borne out by solid testimony from solid witnesses.  Three of those witnesses are scheduled to reiterate their testimony via more bi-partisan questioning in a televised public forum next week. LINK.

Recall the cries that the interviews were not bipartisan?  And the seeming invasion of the secure testimony room by House Republicans?  All theater!  In all interview cases, the House Intelligence Committee is bipartisan consisting of 13 D's and 9 R's (now 10 R's) and questions are expected from all members.  Some of the people who engaged in the secure room break-in were already members who decided the show was more important than attending.  
The GOP demanded a vote by the House to make 'official' the impeachment process was indeed supported by a House majority.  This has not been needed previously and was deemed unnecessary this time, but the House Speaker called the vote anyway to placate the R's, and perhaps to comfirm the process' legitimacy to the public.  The vote established a majority of the House wanted to proceed with impeachment, but now Trump has stated the process needs to be done in secret.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post published on Nov 5 an account of Trump's lies at Trump's Lexington KY rally.  It demonstrates nicely Trump's ability for outright lies when he is cornered.  The scary part is that those lies are what his supporters hear on Fox News, and what they believe.  LINK.

Can the Senate Republicans find their hearts and remember their Oath of Office sufficient to vote for removal of Trump.  It's very clear that the Ukraine action by Trump to force their President to blast the Biden family for the sake of Trump's re-election is illegal and falls into "high crimes and misdemeanors".  How does an elected official sworn to the Constitution find heart in siding with Trump's illegal activities?  The Senate vote, when it comes in subsequent months, will be  something to reckon with.

You have a ballot, now VOTE!

NOTE: 11/04 - As of today, turnout is 14.5%.  Shameful.  That means about 250,000 eligible voters have not voted!  Encourage your friends and relatives to VOTE...TODAY!

Mail-in voting - what could be more convenient?  It's designed to make voting easier, more popular, and encourage greater turnout. Voting is a right for Americans.  It's only been about 100 years that women could vote in the US.  Thinking back to great historical societies, women were denied the right to vote in the Roman and Greek empires.  Some countries have denied women's suffrage until recent days, like Saudi Arabia (2015) - LINK.  Voting is a right; and it's a responsibility.  Our government is by representation.  Each citizen gets to vote for the person that reflects their values and will duly represent those values in the laws they enact.  So VOTE in this local election for the kid's school board members and the council members of the local city councils.

The Columbian has made many recommendations for the local election.  They are reiterated below.  One exception is they chose Perkins over Bethany Rivard with a tip of the hat to her.  Do consider Bethany Rivard as the best for Evergreen School Board Position 4. LINK.

From the Columbian:
"• Referendum Measure 88: Approved. [Failed]
• Initiative Measure 976: We strongly recommend a “no” vote. [Oops.  This was voted down and it will be a problem.  LINK.}
• Advisory votes 20-31: These votes are nonbinding and, therefore, a waste of time. We recommend that you ignore them.
• Senate Joint Resolution 8200: Approved. [Failed also]
• Clark County Council, Dist. 4: Gary Medvigy is the clear choice", says The Columbian.  Vote for Adrian Cortes! [Medvigy won]
"• Vancouver City Council, Pos. 2: Erik Paulsen is the clear choice.  [Paulsen Won]
• Vancouver City Council, Pos. 5: Ty Stober.  [Stober Won]
• Vancouver City Council, Pos. 6: Sarah Fox. [Fox Won]
• Evergreen school board, Dist. 2: Rob Perkins. Bethany Rivard also is a strong candidate", says The Columbian.  Vote Bethany Rivard!  [Still hanging fire]
"• Evergreen school board, Dist. 4: Divya Jain. Rachael Rogers also is a worthy candidate. [Rogers Won]
• Vancouver school board, Pos. 1: Kyle Sproul. [Sproul Won]
• Vancouver school board, Pos. 4: Kathy Decker, although Lisa Messer is equally qualified. [Decker Won]
• Vancouver school board, Pos. 5: Tracie Barrows. Chris Lewis also is a strong candidate. [Barrows Won]
• Port of Vancouver commissioner, Dist. 3: Jack Burkman is the clear choice. [Burkman Won]
• City of Vancouver charter amendments: We recommend a “yes” vote on each of seven proposals."
City of Battle Ground Council Seat 2: Shane Bowman
City of Battle Ground Council Seat 3: Neil Butler
City of Battle Ground Council Seat 7: Phil Johnson
Washougal School Board (!): Jim Cooper [Cooper Won]
Camas-Washougal Port Commissioner: Cassi Marshall [Marszhall is winning]
There you have it.  Now mark that ballot.

Herrera Beutler sandbags impeachment, et al

Long term party marionette Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler made noises recently as if she thought Trump's Ukraine dealings might be not alright, and that the impeachment process needed a vote to move ahead.  The vote has been taken and JHB has settled on the word 'farce' to define the impeachment. LINK.

Lacamas Magazine did what started out to be a lovely article about Carolyn Long raising lots of money in her second bid to replace JHB.  (Rumor has that Carolyn "in-it-for-the Long-run" Long will win in 2020.)  he article started out so nicely but rapidly deteriorated into a most ugly, and untrue, response from JHB about Carolyn's health care plans.  JHB insists on lying about Carolyn's plan.  Carolyn is not for Medicare for all as a starting point.  Health care plans modeled after other successful plans as exist in Canada, England, Mexico and so forth is the ultimate goal, but a step-wise approach using the existing ACA as a basis is needed.   Herrera simply gins up her lies about taxes and expensive health care same as she did last cycle. LINK.

The Columbian wrote an excellent editorial on JHB regarding her stand on impeachment of Trump ripping JHB - "Herrera Beutler puts party ahead of country".  She is in violation of her oath of office, and "her explanations on Facebook ad Twitter fly in the face of logic and common sense, promoting Republican talking points designed to sow discord and doubt among the voting public".  Strong words and well deserved. LINK.

Trump continually yields to Russia

Certainly, Trump loves dictators, like Russia's Putin, North Korea;'s Kim Jong Un, and Turkey's Erodgan.  He wants to be the dictator, the king, of America.  He's a criminal, a narcissist, and a racist.
But there's a very odd tilt to too many of his actions and that is his repeated acquiescence to Russia.  He held the beauty pageant there years before his election, he was on the verge of building a Tower in Russia in 2016, he dismisses evidence that Russia tampered with the 2016 election, and now he is giving the Kurds, Syria and, moreover, Ukraine to Russia.  His world performance is a total sellout and puts the USA to shame and in direct contradiction of our previous principles.
Trumps yielding to Russia at every turn is a larger, more insurmountable problem that his lawlessness.

Local businessman does bad

Ken Fisher, billionaire owner of Fisher Investments in Camas, is reported to have made scurrilous and discriminatory remarks at a meeting of investment CEOs recently.  His vocalizing was so bad that the pledge of secrecy was broken by three other attendees and the State of Michigan company removed some $600 million dollars of retirement investments.  When confronted, Fisher first said these were typical remarks for him and he's never received complaints previously, but he ultimately apologized.  Read The Columbian article- LINK 
UPDATE #2 - The exodus is up to $1.7 Billion for Billionaire Ken Fisher's crude remarks. - LINK
UPDATE - Fallout from Ken Fisher's offensive remarks continues to plague him and his company.  It may cost him a billion dollars in investments -LINK

Impeachable? Yes!

Trump has done so many things that should be impeachable.  Things like recommending Trump Doral for the G7, diverting supply planes to refuel adjacent to his failing resort in Scotland, never divesting of his businesses, covering up illegal campaign contributions, taking Trump foundation money for his campaign, to name a few.

But making this perfect call to Ukraine leader Volodomir Zelensky requesting smear data on Joe Biden, Trump's seemingly main political 2020 competitor, has been a nice easy item to pin him with, quid pro quo notwithstnding.  What he asked of Zelensky is illegal and is enough to impeach on by itself.  The trade aspect is clearly inferred with Trump's needing a "favor, though". 

Then begins the cover-ups.  There's the denials, the prevention of testimonies, the protestation that his office is exempt even fro investigation, and Giuliani, Sondland, firing Marie Yovanovitch, and the subsequent gas deal for fun and profit.  The best denial is that his rights to due process are being ignored, or that the impeachment is an attempt to swing the 2020 election.

No matter & whatever, There's enough there to remove him from office and public opinion is at about 51% to impeach and remove him from office.  Publiv opinion is the thing that will let impeachment happen.  It does not appear that the Republicans will ever show any backbone and take country first as a their sworn oath and be anywhere close to honest about Trump's illegal doings and his insufficiency for office.  One thing that got the attention of the R's is the kowtowing to Turkey's Erdogan and the abandonment to slaughter of our Kurdish allies in the overthrow of ISIS.  A couple of R's have been vocal over that singular situation.

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post had a few things to say about the "cowardice" of the GOP in being honest about Trump - LINK

The impeachment is happening

Wait. What?  Trump is greedy.  Fer sure!.  He even admits it.  Here's an article by Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post that outlines Trump's most significant instances of personal greed over country first.  LINK.

This laughing stock president would be funny is he wasn't so dangerous.  That's dangerous to the earth, to the water, to the people of the US, and to the reputation of the United States.  We're in a real pickle with this corrupt administration that includes Trump, William "The Walrus" Barr, Attorney General, and perhaps Mike Pompeo, Seceretary of State.  Not to neglect tarring "Moscow" Mitch McConnell and his gang of immoral Senate Republicans that stand aside while Trump destroys this country in politics, and pollution so that the Republicans can get a few of their agenda items pushed though.  This in spite of any cogent national budgeting or gun control or healthcare plans.  The R's have allowed so much deviousness to go by that for them to accuse Trump of wrongdoing they would have to include themselves as guilty for letting so many other things goes to devastation.

Here's an impeachment summary from Rex Huppke of the Chicago Tribune wherein is outlined the simple facts, quid pro quo notwithstanding, that makes trump's guilt simple, observable, and actionable.  And it is being acted on.  The push back is happening from the guilty in the form of blathering denial, finger pointing, grandiose conspiracy schemes, backpedaling and just plain lying. LINK to the Article

JHB "hypocritical"

It doesn't take much to call Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler hypocritical, but here it is in The Columbian.  No doubt it.  Editorial Page Editor Greg Jayne calls Beutler out for backing Trump's trade war and budget deficit increases, and rightly so.  The woman is profoundly just a party marionette who attempts to act neutral with ineffective phone-in town halls (by invitation) and valueless job fairs and industry visits.  read Greg's editorial - LINK.

Oh yes.  Have you heard the very wonderful Carolyn Long is running again for the Washington 3rd Congressional District.  She won Clark County last time over Beutler, but struggled with the other six counties in the district.  She is the real deal - very well spoken and very well qualified - and is expected to win in 2020.  It's very important to back her, finance her, and volunteer for her.  Start NOW!

The Columbian recommends candidates

The Columbian interviews virtually all candidates prior to ballots being mailed and provides their studied and guarded opinion on who is the better choice for the job at consideration.
So far this 2019 election cycle, they have made several recommendations:
No on I-976 - Constraining car tabs to $30 cuts out way too much very necessary revenue.  It's an 'Eyeman' thing - LINK
Yes on R-88. It prevents "documented discrimination" in hiring.  It is supported by Democrats.  LINK
Yes on Senate Joint Resolution 8200.  This keeps government running not only in the event of an "enemy attack" but in case of natural disaster like earthquake - LINK.
Yes on Vancouver Charter 7. This caps salaries - LINK
Kathy Decker over Lisa Messer for Vancouver School Board Position 4 - a close choice - LINK.
Kyle Sproul over Dale Rice for Vancouver School Board Position 1- LINK.
Divya Jain over incumbent Rachael Rogers for Evergreen School Board Position 4 - LINK
Sarah Fox over Jeanne Stewart for Vancouver City Council - LINK
Ty Stober over David Regan for Vancouver City Council. - LINK
Gary Medvigy over Adrian Cortes for County Council District 4. - LINK
Tracey Barrows over Chris Lewis for Vancouver School Board Pos 5 - LINK.
Erik Paulsen for Vancouver City Council - Versus the rather absent Maureen McGoldrick.  LINK
Rob Perkins for Vancouver School Board - he is incumbent vs the very well qualified and "impressive" teacher; Bethany Rivard. LINK
Jack Burkman for Port Commissioner over Dan Barnes, who could also be adequate.  LINK.

Using Nan as an example for today

Do you know Nan Henriksen?  Have you heard of Nan? She foresaw that Camas couldn't depend on a single industry to sustain itself.  She became the mayor of Camas and proceeded to facilitate industrial growth and sustainability.

Greg Jayne, The Columbian Editorial Page Editor, cites Nan's accomplishments and on on to use her visionary capabilities and successful implementation as the kind of vision and effort needed to solve today's problems, especially climate change.  Enjoy the piece at - LINK

Clark County Forward event 09/26

Clark County Forward is a relatively new activity here in Clark County.  Their mission is to talk with Democratic voters and get to know them, get to know their issues and get them to vote.  The Regional Technical Director is Colin Peddicord.

The Kickoff Event is a way for folks to get to know what this group is all about and to see that their efforts will assist in encouraging voting and in getting the best people elected in Clark County.

Hamburgs and hot dogs will be served, and beer and wine available, at the following:

CLARK COUNTY FORWARD
KICK OFF EVENT
IAFF Local 452 (Firefighters Union Hall)
2807 NW Fruit valley Road - MAP
Vancouver WA
5:30-7:00 PM

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Trust Trump? - No way!

Dana  Milbank of the Washington Post Writers Group cites instance after instance where Trump has backpedaled on a statement AND denied ever saying it.  MIlbank posits that it may be old age forgetfulness, or that he misrepresents past statements to get [himself] out of trouble.  It['s easier to belioeve the latter - that he just lies about things.  Or it's possible he thrives on chaos where no one knows what his true feelings or directions are so he retains control and keeps everyone off kilter and ineffective.  Read the piece at - LINK

Trump diverting $3.6 billion from military to Wall

Update:  A television report 09/20/19 indicated Trump was planning to take a second sum from the military to the tune of another $3.6 billion.
This is all money that was approved by Congress in its budget administration function.  These dollars are taken from projects that need doing.  One in particular is adding safety and protection to the Washington State submarine base in Bangor WA just NW of Seattle.

The Columbian editorial of Sunday 09/15/19 says clearly that the Trump plan to fund his ego wall with $3.6 billion dollars taken out of the pentagon military budget is wrong and must be opposed.  Congress sets the budget, not the president.  That money was allocated for construction projects all over the country and the world to build piers, schools, and do naval ship maintenance, to name a few.  Trump is "dictatorial" and the congress is "shameful".  Read the piece at - LINK

Trump pocketing tax dollars

Are you keeping up on the Trump emoluments violations?  Trump suggests the G7 be held at his resort.  Air Force planes are doing refueling stops at a Scottish airport adjacent to his failing Turnberry resort.  Pence stayed on the opposite side of Ireland in a Trump resort an d commuted to Dublin for meetings.  Attorney General Barr is throwing a $30,000 birthday party at the DC Trump hotel.  Here's a little graphic to describe those situations:

Herrera-Beutler wrong on trade war

The Columbian editorial by Greg Jayne (Sun 09/15/19) takes off after the rising national debt, and after Congresswoman Herrera Beutler's "hypocritical acquiescence over Trump's economic policy.  On the trade war, she's waiting to see what he does and "watching to see what I can do to mitigate the impacts".  Uhoh, wrong side of the issue , Jaime.  It calls for proactive action.   Read the oped at - LINK
This is way too similar to Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell's saying he can't act on gun control until he knows what the president wants.  Again, the tail is wagging the dog.

When George W. Bush was president it felt like the country was going to hell.  Now it feels like we have gone there.

Trump re-elected?!

Seeing trump in the White House for another four years is a terrifying thought.  At this point six out of ten voters are trying to ignore the daily lies, grifts, and horror stories and are waiting for November 2020 when they expect he will be gone.   But how did he get there?  Who supports him?  Roughly 40% of voters seem to like his policies.  They don't seem to care that he's taking the citizens' tax dollars away from worthwhile projects to needlessly build the southern ego wall.  Nor do they dislike his horrible treatment of the immigrants of color from the southern countries.  Nor do they seem to mind his snarky bigotry toward non-whites.  Nor do they mind their tax dollars going into his personal pocket from forced uses of his hostelry like Mar-a-Lago, Turnberry, Doonebeg, or DC venues.

Diligence and VOTING are tantamount in ousting this sham of a president.  Anne McFeatters of Tribune News Service sums it up nicely at - LINK

Refuel Air Force planes to richen Trump

Trump owns a golf resort in Scotland called Turnberry.  It is very unprofitable.  The closest airport is about 30 miles away and also is a money loser, to the extent that the owners were going to shed it.  Through some form of communication yet to be determined, the large C-17 Globemaster transport planes that fly from the US to resupply bases in Kuwait have begun landing at this private Scottish airport and refueling their 35,000  gallon tanks at commercial prices.  While there, the crews go to the Trump hotel and spend more government money.  This little airport has taken in an additional $11 mil since this started.
The planes had always refueled at US bases in Germany or Spain where they refueled with less expensive fuel and stayed at military accommodations. This activity can only be construed as a violation of the constitutional emoluments clause which makes it illegal for a president to make financial gain from his office.  Read more at - LINK

Trump = 12,000 lies

The Columbian's Greg Jayne expounds on President Trump's inablity to be honest.  It's so bad that nothing Trump says can be believed.  Even if he says he'll do something one day, he may take it back the next.  The US Citizenry and the world have grown tired and inured to his ridiculous boasts.  Sometimes h=his staff tries to cover for him, other times they rat him out.  Read Greg at LINK

                                                                                                                                 Perfectly Ugly

Dave Reichert running for WA Gov?

Dave Reichert (R) was 8th CD congressman until he retired in 2017.  Kim Shrier (D) won the position over Dino Rossi in 2018.  reichert is now considering a run for the governor's seat.  Read the article - LINK.

Nirvana founder Novoselic is Gray's River WA grange leader

                                                                                                    Krist Novoselic and accordion in Giants in the Trees

Krist Novoselic founded Nirvana with Curt Cobain to great success.  Krist was active in the WA State Democratic Party around 2009 and attended the Clark County Democrats Annual fundraiser and Dinner at the County Fairgrounds Event Center that year.  He was well received.  Congressman Brian Baird and DNC Chair Governor Howard Dean had their pictures taken with Krist at the dinner.

Krist is still active in his community and still making music.  Check out his current activities at - LINK.

Farmer's tipping point is fuel ethanol

The farmer's haven't protested a large amount over the loss of soybean sales due to the China tariffs  Perhaps like this Iowan they felt it was a necessary long-term solution to balance the trade deficit.  But when Trump showed favoritism to 31 oil refineries by letting them forgo the addition of ethanol from corn to their gasoline, the indignation rose.  About 40% of the nations corn crop goes into fuel ethanol.  The China soybean war is looked on as a long game, but reasonable.  The ethanol decision is deemed liking the oil companies better than the farmer.  Of course, you'll remember that ethanol was added to gas to make a burn cleaner and was a part of the Clean Air Act.  Read the article - LINK.

Can't lose weight like you used to?

This article from The Atlantic says to stay the same weight nowadays, one must eat less than one did in the 1980's to stay low.  Why?  They cite possible causes:  chemicals, hormones in meat, and changing gut bacteria.  It's too believable.  There are chemicals everywhere altering our bodies from the inside and there's global warming  killing us from the outside.  It's all about profit - lot's of it.  Read the article - LINK

Inslee withdraws, and runs, with dignity

                                                                                          Credit: David Horsey, Seattle Times

WA Governor Jay Inslee is pretty cool.  He has withdrawn from the Presidential Primary race with dignity and without doing anything detrimental to himself, the campaign, or any office.  He left a legacy of heightened awareness about climate change which is being appropriately picked up by the more popular candidates as a salient issue, particularly by Sen Bernie Sanders.
The Columbian editorialized 08/26/19 about Inslee's withdrawal legacy, and were complimentary to our Governor.  Jay's Gold Standard climate change revocation plan is "well-reasoned.well-informed".  Read the piece at - LINK.

Now we can keep our impressive Governor Inslee.

Trump diagnosed "psychotic-like"

A psychiatrist who has followed Trump and his idiosyncrasies since the campaign is reporting again on trump be unbalanced, and increasingly so.  He notes that Trump has now referred to himself as the "chosen one", a term usually used to reference the Messiah.  Read the piece - LINK

A good synopsis of US economy

Here's a little analysis of where we are with the US economy.  It seems that opposing forces are at play by the Trump administration - they are significantly  raising the amount we owe in the national debt, and they are significantly reducing the amount of money collected to run the government through tax cuts to corporations and wealthy individuals.  Catch up via this article - LINK

Jay Inslee withdraws with honor...to run!

Washington Governor Jay Inslee, running for US President as the Climate Change Candidate, has withdrawn from that race.  He made his announcement Wednesday on the MSNBC news show; The Rachel Maddow Show.  He was very positive and dignified and received statements honoring his perseverance and sense of issues from newscasters and other presidential candidates.

Jay announced Thursday that he will seek a third term as the Governor of Washington.  He is well supported in that regard.  Some who would have run for Governor are on record as stepping aside if Jay runs.  Similarly, WA Attorney General Bob Ferguson has said he will run for Attorney General in support of Jay, and other attorney general opponents will step aside.

Jay has certainly successfully promoted the need to combat climate change.  He has raised awareness for climate change and will work with the current presidential candidates to bolster their understanding of the urgent climate problem.

Trump on no gun control

The statistic about gun deaths in America is pretty clear - we are the only modern country with rampant gun deaths especially mass slayings, and the distinguishing differenc in us and the other countries is the huge numer of guns per person in this country.  Other countries have the same mental health problems as us but do not have mass killings.  It's time to disarm.  Trump spoke out for better background checks soon after the Dayton OH and El Paso shootings, but as of Tuesday, just 18 days later, he backpedaled saying the US already has "very, very strong background checks".  He cited his supporters love for the Second Amendment as the cause for the reversal.

Trump - "...recession...? OK?"

Trump continues to surpass himself.  On Tuesday he was interviewed about his tariff policies on China and their effect on the US economy.  He acknowledged the tariffs could cause economic pain or even a recession but that it had to be done.  "Somebody had to take China on", he says.  He believes, probably correctly, that a weakening US economy will weaken his chance for re-election.  So where he has not admitted before that the tariffs may hurt US citizens, he is now acknowledging that they might be harmful. 
Many market observers report that a recession is likely.  Tariffs are a factor as is the longetivity of the recovery which started under Obama and has continued with influence by Trump until lately with the tariffs.  Read the article and all Trump's quotes at - LINK

Trump's tariffs a problem

.The farmers are being hurt by the tariffs with China because China isn't buying our crops, soybeans in particular.  Trump says the tariffs do not hurt consumers, but every analyst says they do.  In fact, Trump said last week, he was delaying additional tariffs on China until after the Christmas buying season, saying "in case tariffs have an impact".  There the double-speak is revealed.  Whimsical ploicies is his norm and the volatility of the stock market lately reflects this.  It affects how people spend money and plan to spend money.  It is widely accepted that the currently good US economy started on a rise in Obama's tenure and has continued since without any real influence by Trump.  Market indicators lately say a recession is coming.  Admittedly the predictors are not finite or perfectly accurate, but market volatility and withholding of investment dollars are mostly emotional responses to whispers about instability and recession.  Such talk unnerves buyers and investors and the economy stumbles.  The stage is set through Trump's wooing of dictators, domestic terrorism support, whimsical policies, and government by Tweet that confidence here and abroad is sinking.

Bernie Sanders' day in the sun is past

Froma Harrop of Creators.com clarifies the validity of some Bernie Sanders complaints about how the media, particularly the Washington Post, covers, or doesn't cover, him.  She points out that his big moment in life was 2016 when he ran against Hillary Clinton.  Bernie has brought his 10-points to the fore, however, with the result that Hillary moved left, and now Elizabeth Warren is touting Bernies' platform.  She does it in a way that is much more friendly and somehow feels more doable than Bernie.  Read the piece at - LINK

Kevin Siers cartoon: Trump’s teleprompter plea for unity falls flat

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This lightly veiled dig references Trump's Teleprompter speech on Monday 08/05/19 after the El Paso and Dayton massacres.  That speech verbally, but unemotionally, called for "unity", but the Tweets that day were the same braggadocio and diatribes against critics, like Beto O'Rourke.  He continues to dog whistle hatred for brown people and to make that a center-point of his campaign, despite what he might flatly utter in a speech.

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Nobody listens to Trump anymore

David Frum, staff reporter for The Atlantic, doesn't like Trump and his machinations.  He reports that Trump "shames and debases the office every day".  Trump's over-the-top statements are so bizarre that people shrug them off - and wait for a change.  And while he makes a worldwide fool of the US daily, he keeps us on the brink of war and recession.  Read the editorial at - LINK

Trump is 'the environment'

George Will, columnist for the Washington Post, says Trump is responsible for today's US turmoil.  Will quotes Eric Hoffer, American writer and philosopher, that "malice enhances the penetrating power of and idea or opinion", and "rudeness is the weak man's imitation of strength".  Malice and rudeness are the methods Trump uses to make his points, along with a few dog whistles.  The listener is too often inclined to believe Trump's sentiments and seeming direction are guideposts for antisocial behavior.  Read the piece at - LINK

It's past time to talk about guns

Greg Jayne, editorial page editor of The Columbian, asks when is the time to talk about gun control if not now.  He points out that "the United States is the only country where mass shootings are essentially a daily occurrence".  Every other country has mental health problems and video game availability, but none have the overwhelming number of guns per citizen that the US has.  He says Herrera Beutler has no interest in banning assault weapons.  Read the article at - LINK

Must have the Senate

Mitch McConnell, federal senate leader, is an obstructionist.  For meaningful legislation to be passed (gun laws, election protection), he has to go.  Eugene Robinson of the Miami Herald has some suggestions - LINK

NRA to Trump >$30,000,000

The Associated Press did a little study on the NRA recently.  You remember the National Rifle Association - they used to teach gun safety to kids.  Now they encourage owning guns that contribute to school shootings.  They are a powerful lobby and have Trump's ear admittedly.  The attached article discusses their rather odd CEO, who brought back assault weapons after they were banned.  The article notes the NRA contributed $30 million to Trump's campaign.  Read the piece at - LINK

Mental health, video games not shooting cause

Here's a factual article by William Wan and Lindsay Bever of the Washington Post that says only about 25% of massacre shooters have mental illness, and that video games are not a problem.  Gun availability in the light of resentful thinking or nedd for infamy or narcissism is the tie-in.  "Gun access" is what needs to be prevented as is done in other civilized countries.  Especially gun access to military grades weapons. In Dayton the shooter fired "41 shots in less than 30 seconds", a speed which was enabled by having a military weapon.  Read the WaPo article - LINK

Trump said Monday that “mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun”.  Even if this were true, which the above says it's not, then elimination of "the gun" would still prevent the act of atrocity.  No other civilized country has this problem.  Why do we put up with it?

Trump on gun violence

The first weekend of August 2019 was particularly violent with explosive shootings in both El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.  Trump is felt by many to be stoking the fires of domestic terrorism with his inflammatory rhetoric about "fine" racists in Charlottesville, and chants with his followers.  He made a speech after the terrible weekend about gun violence prevention through typical R techniques like mental health treatment and violent video games, and denounced white supremacy in a way.  But there's no substance to these remarks and the accompanying New York Times article discusses how iterative the process was to finally get him to offer a fairly comprehensive speech.  At one point Trump linked gun violence to immigration, somehow.  Read the well done article at - LINK.

White bigotry successful?

How will people you know respond to Trump's fear-mongering and race-baiting?

Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald reminds us of George Wallace  and other politicians who successfully used bigotry by whites to be elected.  If you're woke, it is hard to picture how powerful this tactic can be.  If you are around some pretty 'average' folk, and listen, you can see it is a surprisingly useful, and frighteningly successful, tactic.  Read the piece - LINK

'Country first' is  gone

Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald points out that the inclination to do the right thing for people over politics is passe.  The new paradigm is scary and  intolerable - Read the piece at - LINK.

Too much inattention

Here's a little piece by Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post.  She pulls no punches about Trump and his misdeeds.  Similarly she warns US citizens to pay attention - select a nominee that can beat Trump or lose democracy. - LINK

Local Election

Clark County Elections has posted a "Notice of Primary and Special Election", Tuesday August 06, 2019.
The voter registration deadlines are 5:00 PM Monday July 29, 2019 for on-line and mail registrations.

In-person registration may take place at the Elections Office up to August 06, 2019 at 8:00 PM.

The Columbian has recommended the following candidates so far:
Vancouver City Council Pos. 2: Erik Paulsen
Vancouver City Council, Pos 6: Diana Perez and Paul Montague
Vancouver School Board, Pos. 1: Dale Rice and Kyle Sproul, with a nod to Caressa Milgrove
Vancouver School Board Pos. 5: Tracie Barrows and Chris Lewis

Vote... early and often.

Racism abounds

The horror show is in full swing.  Trump has people chanting racist calls about congresswomen.  We all remember his respect for the white supremacists in Charlottesville.
The slaves were freed in 1865.  The Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1964.  All to the good and all to the point of understanding and recognizing that all men are created equal. 
Unless you are a native American, you have migrant blood in your veins and you're part of the melting pot.  But you may not be of color.

This Trump racism seems to be a campaign ploy to energize his base, much like cruelty to asylum seekers at the Southern border is intended to do.  One hears that the some R's reject the racist direction but the R party never makes a statement. They like the fear bred  by inferring that 'coastals', Democrats, will ruin the country.  Check out Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post on Republican racism - LINK

The two words to denigrate Democrats in the 2020 elections are "Socialists", and "Send her back".  We have to prove that socialism is not communism, and that we already have huge beneficial socialist programs, not the least of which is the military, followed by tax-fed police and fire.

What do we do to combat racism?  We have to not allow it.  Over the past 50 years, racism has been driven down, not truly eliminated, but at least the conversation was, to the largest part, politically correct.  In the last two years, that political correctness has been washed away and it is okay to attack, slur, and assail another person for their race and/or color.

This is not the America of the our forefathers and our constitution.

Call him "ineffective"

He's calling us socialists and obstructionists and the cause of the border debacle.  We call him racist and moronic and a liar.  Strong argumentative words.

Let's call him "Ineffective".  That label will be like nails on a blackboard to him.  This was a suggestion by a panelist on CNN the other day.  Try it on some people.  The reaction has been good.

"Trump is 'ineffective'".

eMail: bluedonkeyswm@gmail.com