(#4612) No dereliction of duty by General Milley

      To hear the republicans talk about General Milley, you would think he was a traitor or something. This is just another reason why I despise the republican party. All he did was ram home with the personnel that would have been advised by trump to start a nuclear war with China that he needed to be in the loop. Not that he was required to be in the loop but that he was adamant that he should be kept informed if a nuclear trigger were ordered. He also let his counterpart in China know that the United States had no intent to attack them out of the blue. These are wise and correct moves by the chief of staff of our national military.
     If I had been him I would have done anything necessary within the scope of my duties to prevent an unstable president from doing something so horrid as to initiate an attack on anyone in order to remain in office as a strategy. General Milley was in the small circle that regularly met with trump so it isn't as if he couldn't see the desperation of trump to pull out all the stops to remain in office. As the truth of the trump desperation in several areas of his control have come to light it was an imperative that General Milley pushed the envelope of his ability to thwart a horrific scenario that would not only cost American lives but would put the world on the edge of mass disaster and humanity at the edge of extinction.
     General Milley may take some heat from his decision to protect America and American lives but to me he is a hero to civilized behavior and a stalwart defender of the democratic rule of our government. That the republican party is the defender of trump and his irrational behavior is just another reason for me to dismiss the attacks they are aiming at General Milley. I instead focus on the fact that General Milley took steps that help insure not only a transfer of power, regardless if it was peaceful, which we know it was not, but he also instilled faith in the rest of us that there was someone close to trump's inner circle who would be willing to fall on his sword if it meant preserving our democracy, by stopping trump from killing our citizens for his own personal gain.

(#4611) Defending our Constitution

      Yesterday, I was privileged to see first hand on C-span2 the floor speech by Democratic Senator from Virginia Tim Kaine. It was to me like Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota described as extraordinary and I would even go further and call it crucial. Tim explained that his oath of office was never the first thing he thought of when thinking about his job description as an elected official until just days after him and his colleagues being victims of the January 6th trump conspired insurrection. He said that his oath of office, to defend and protect the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, is his real job description, https://m.box.com/shared_item/https%3A%2F%2Ftimkaine.box.com%2Fs%2F1q23ey1711az1npx795x8hj0u8nm9ttg?fbclid=IwAR379A5x62ECnuDY-J_UBcmZzq1TEQJCSHygs54SPRfNRASggeNE6OnGIv4.
     I was so proud to hear Tim say what he said in defense of the new voting rights protection legislation that is now supported by all 50 Democratic/Independent Senators in the Democratic caucus. With impassioned speeches like the one especially from Tim yesterday I cannot see any way at all for the filibuster defenders to continue to defend the filibuster or not want a carve out for voting rights protections. The idea that they would be dismissing their constitutional duties in order to defend a rule that is not constitutionally mandated when the right to vote, which is constitutionally mandated and under attack, is illogical, nonsensical, and a violation of their oath.
     I know that the Senate filibuster rule, that is designed to make legislation difficult to pass, has a function in an otherwise collegial and respectful way may be useful. However, our politics is beyond all that wishful thinking and the cold hard truth of it is that the republican party will never be a fair and honest party that puts the needs and rights of the working middle poor class alongside those of their base, the wealthy and powerful. The only alternative, which Tim Kaine exposed yesterday in his floor speech is for Democrats to seize the moment and pass voting rights protections in any way possible which is showing to be through at least a carve out of the filibuster.
     

(#4610) NO to the recall wins big

      Like any major election day, I was a bit nervous about how this one would turn out. I remember vividly the confidence I had in 2016 with Hillary Clinton. Only to be shell shocked all night long as the returns came in. Even though that was 5 years ago and what seems more like a lifetime ago, It is etched deeply into my existence. In the 2017 elections for New Jersey and Virginia the confidence began to come back with big democratic wins in those two state races. In 2018, the return of Nancy Pelosi to the leadership of the House was exhilarating. Then the defeat of trump and the takeover of the Senate as well in 2020 renewed my faith in American elections.
     With this large triumph over the trump directed republican recall here in California last night I can now rest easier that the worst of what happened in 2016 and began to end in 2017 is over. It took us having to live through 4 years of worry that our lives were about to end to get to this point so breaking from that worry is not going to be easy. Yet with the turnout and vote for the NO on the recall it seems that our blue tsunami wave that began in 2017 is not letting up. That the leading vote getter for republicans last night went through the trouble of conceding and being somewhat gracious in defeat was a victory of sorts as well since trump republicans are not easily convinced they lost.
     Now we look forward to those same state elections that took place in 2017, in November 2021. That is in about 6 weeks so the early voting will begin in earnest very shortly. For our blue wave to show it's longevity we will need to advance our democratic base even further in those states to cement our view that democrats protecting democracy is the popular choice. A blueprint for electing democrats is being devised and in California last night was tested. It passed with glowing results but there are still some areas we democrats need to improve. Our male Latino outreach needs to be expanded and fortified and our common sense approach to facts and truth, needs to be more readily amplified. But we know our strengths and also our weaknesses so let us get to work on both going into November and 2022.

(#4609) The writing is on the wall

      Since the Biden inauguration we who are clear eyed about how republicans operate have been shouting for a filibuster carve out for voting rights protections. Although Joe Biden was able to get an infrastructure bill passed with republican help it was only a hard infrastructure package that is dwarfed the human infrastructure bill that no republican voted for in the Senate and House. So the hope that republicans would get behind a voting rights protections bill when the republican party is going all out to suppress voting rights is ignorant. The only way a voting rights bill can pass the Senate is through a carve out of the filibuster, or complete removal of the filibuster, or somehow through a cleverly nuanced budget reconciliation process.
     Joe Manchin and his other reluctant democratic senators are going to come under extreme pressure in a New York second as the time for passing a voting rights protection bill is right now. Most likely this morning or later today a Joe Manchin led voting rights protections bill will be offered for a vote and when it most certainly will be defeated from clearing the 60 vote threshold Joe Manchin will have it confirmed to himself that republicans are not going to support his attempt to protect voting rights. It is at that moment that Joe Manchin will be faced with using a filibuster carve out for voting rights protections.
     The republican party is all in on suppressing the vote so they will not support anything that cripples their effort to keep poor and disadvantaged eligible voters from voting. What Joe Manchin and others like him need to realize is that without at least a carve out all sitting democrats in both the Senate and House will become the minority party because republicans were allowed to cheat their way into power. It is either that or use the carve out to protect voting rights. The calculus is simple! I expect that Joe Manchin will eventually agree and with him the other reluctant democratic Senators to at least a filibuster carve out if the voting rights protection bill is not somehow passed under budget reconciliation.

(#4608) Truth comes from the tangible, not the imaginable

      The air, ground, water, fire, these are tangible realities that exist. Our species must have differing amounts of each in order to survive. I shouldn't have to explain how we need each for us to exist. Without the air we cannot breathe therefore cannot exist. Without Earth we have no where to exist. Without the water we cannot have a body to exist in since our bodies are made up of about 60% water. Plus we cannot grow food to survive. Without fire our species would have frozen over during the several ice ages of the past. In essence, without the tangible we do not exist. The idea that we can forego any of these necessary life giving paradigms is unintelligible.
     I don't exist on concepts like religion, myth, or superstition. I exist because of the tangible. Logic dictates that to be without any of these life giving paradigms we as a species will cease to exist. So basing any truth on anything less than the tangible will only come out wrong. We as a species build from the foundation of truth and the truth is hard, cold and knowable. Yet as humans we give the truth life through our existence. We can utilize the tangible to create innovative opportunities that are grounded in fact and logic. When we go wrong it is because we put our wherewithal behind non tangible concepts that are more fiction than reality.
     To believe something that is not tangible is to believe in the hope of it not the reality of it. Now being hopeful is a positive thing but it is not a truth, it is a well wishing. I sometimes wonder how so many of us cannot distinguish reality from hope. I get that we all want something better but until we address the truth of things nothing will get batter. I am no one who ignores reality in order to pacify anything. I live in this world where the truth endures despite the many who wish to not admit it. Which makes my life and other's lives much more difficult. Because the tangible is our beginning and our ending as it is in reality so accepting that and then trying to rise above the simple becomes that much more possible.

(#4607) When I am rightly corrected in anger I don't respond well

      Everyday I prove that I am human by making some kind of a mistake or more. It is not uncommon for me to find that I have not done enough or misunderstood something. I know myself and am not surprised nor startled at the possibility. I actually like it when others point out my mistakes and for the most part am humbled and remorseful to correct the mistake with apologies all around. Except, when the one or others who point out my mistake(s) with anger or condescension I automatically go into I don't give a fuck mode. In fact I will get contrary and try to defend my mistake with some obscure idiotic attempt. Not because I know I am right, but because I am pissed off at the person who is belittling me.
     I know that is not how to handle these types of situations. But the idea that others would rip me a new one because I unintentionally made a wrong choice is a real trigger for me. They think that I am a substitute target for their anger at something else and tear into me because it was convenient. Instead of being polite or even civil in telling me there is something wrong with what I did. I am okay with that when it is done without an ulterior motive. I suppose because I am writing about this today I will think of better ways to handle the rude ones who are correct in their correcting me but are wrong about how they deliver their correction to me.
     Life is about learning right up to the end of life so I will keep doing that and try not to blow a gasket or act irrationally when confronted with these types of situations. I am a humble man for the most part until my anger is triggered then it is all hands on deck with my defensive reactions. I need to upgrade my responses to a more intelligent variety where I turn their harsh rebuke of me into a more reasonable retort. I do make mistakes, but not because I don't care, no, because I do care and I am a human being. I don't want to ever make a mistake especially when others are either misinformed or hurt by it. There is never an intentionality to my actions to be wrong. Being civil or even polite is the way I respect others when I spot a mistake and I would hope I would get that same type of courtesy when I make a mistake.
     

(#4606) I hate this day!

      Having watched on television the horror of the attack on America by a calculating group of terrorists 20 years ago and being able to do nothing, I am still scarred. I hate that shrub didn't understand his daily briefings enough to abort this attack, and because of that failure led our nation down a path of misery and deception for 2 decades. I am still angry that we went to war against Iraq and Afghanistan when none of the perpetrators were either Iraqi nor Afghani. 15 of the 19 were Saudi's but we didn't seem to care about that. 2 were United Arab Emirate citizens with one each from Lebanon and Egypt. I would count 20 perpetrators because I include a 16th Saudi, bin laden.
     I am still angry at the thought of those poor souls on the upper levels above the plane attacks who had no escape whatsoever and instead had to know they were about to become dead. I am sick at the thought of all those first and second responders who had contacted deadly illnesses because they tried to save lives on that fateful day and were for years denied benefits, no thanks for less than nothing once again republicans! I hate this day because the greed of our capitalistic society ferments hatred around the world at us because we are ruthless in applying our form of selfishness.
     I hate this day because it reminds me that there are problems bigger than all of us that are not being addressed. Because this day reminds me that another strategic catastrophe is just around the corner because we have not the will to face up to our own inadequacies. This day is a remembrance day for the souls lost on 9/11 and those are the ones who I will keep in my thoughts but the shadow around us all is not the effect on that day but the cause and we still as a species have not come to terms with it. What we fail to do as an objective species will eventually define the end of our era.

(#4605) I am like a kid seeing rain for the first time

      Late last evening I sat out in the rain because for rain to be here in Sacramento California was quite a treat and for me entertaining. I know the seriousness of our drought and the real need for rain to dampen the current burning fires here, but at a micro level, for me, it was all about me. I am one of the few who loves rain more than I love the shining sun. I was raised in Sacramento and a few other California towns so being hot and sun tanned most of my life I have gotten my fill of that extreme. I also lived my middle years up in the north Seattle area and know rain and snow well also.
     I am no young buck anymore so being quiet and enjoying nature is my new paradigm. I yearn now to be back in the Seattle area where the rain is a constant friend and the snow a special guest once in a while. Here in Sacramento I rarely get to see and feel rain and honestly only experience snow when I go up into high elevations. Now even high elevations don't automatically mean snow as the drought and lack of rain is turning the beautiful state of California into more desert than green farmland. So when the rain came last evening I was excited like a kid and went out and sat in it for at least half an hour. The warm temperature allowed me to wear a t-shirt and cutoffs with no shoes so I could absorb the precious water from the sky.
     This morning I got up early like usual and went out back to water my trees, bushes, and plants as a weekly commitment and while out back got some more of that unexpected rain. So there I stood in the dawn of the morning absorbing the rain into my face. I don't know when I will get to feel the rain on my face again but for today I am well satisfied. The weather prognosticators don't hold much hope for more rain anytime soon but at least this little water from the sky respite was happily accepted. It isn't often that I can feel like a kid and when it happens I smile and remember the times in my life when similar occasions occurred and how happy I was to be part of it. I need more rain in my face. :)

(#4604) Helping people is who we are, not hurting people!

      I see in my newsfeed on Facebook this morning an advertisement from my state of California telling me how to get rent relief from Covid if needed. I don't need it since I own my home but many others do so I posted the article to my wall so others can see if it helps them. To me this is helping people when they need help. It is like when food banks offer food to those who have none. Unlike in Texas where they just passed into law restrictive voting rights and abortion rights. Neither of these help people in their normal daily lives in fact they are designed to hurt people!
     I don't know what is going on in Texas with the majority of voters who keep these republican politicians in office for the pain of losing rights and not getting necessary help when it is needed. Someone will have to explain to me why our lives are so different from each other California vis a vis Texas. Life is complicated and for anyone to think that we can live it without help is dishonest. California voters, of whom there are approximately 25 million, overwhelmingly have decided that a government that helps its citizens improve their lives is much better than one that makes their lives harder.
     Texas voters, of whom there are approaching 20 million, are still opting for their state government to leave them alone and leave them to the mercies of fate, if any mercy at all. The rationale is that all Texans should be able to make their own way in life. Despite the fact that their rights and opportunities are handcuffed. Like when the current governor of Texas says that he will stop all rapes as a solution for stopping rapes. The absurdity of his comment is in line with the state of Texas thinking that people can do without help when they need it. The struggle for the soul of Texas is taking place right now and in the 2022 election we may see the state of Texas begin to resemble the humane strategy of California and help its citizens instead of hurting them.

(#4603) The partisan infrastructure bill should be 10 trillion over 10 years, not for 3.5 trillion over 10 years

      There is so much to do in our nation to right the wrongs of the past republican administrations that the dollar amount needs to reflect the actual damage. With 10 trillion over 10 years Congressional Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez figures this: ..."that the U.S. could “realistically” need $10 trillion over 10 years to “create tens of millions of good union jobs in this country, that can shore up our health care, our infrastructure, our housing, and doing it in a way that draws down our carbon emissions.”", https://thehill.com/homenews/house/545917-ocasio-cortez-eyeing-10t-over-10-years-for-infrastructure. A long view for sure and that to me is wise. By patching things with intermediate measures we are not taking into account the most efficient way to redirect our economy and our society on whole.
     I know that the 2 current infrastructure bills being considered are about 4 trillion and could go even lower yet are not small attempts. They at least are a beginning toward addressing our problems however we should be doing more than just beginning. We should be attacking the problem with an eye toward eliminating the problem. I am not one who would take an aspirin for a broken bone and be satisfied with some relief. I want the bone reset and taken care of until full recovery. Such it is for our hard and human infrastructure maladies. They need the full attention and action required to not only repair the damage but to rebuild the paradigms.
     So when I hear some democrats complain about the 3.5 trillion price tag for the human infrastructure bill I want to capture their attention and make them understand that solving a problem requires a full understanding of what that problem is and not just some amount in a ledger. The time for solving problems is right now with the majorities we democrats have. Not tomorrow, not next week but right now. Not only will getting done the real solutions needed for our Democracy help most all our citizenry but it will also cement in our politics the democratic party as working for it's citizens and establish a baseline for whom to trust with our future.

(#4602) Congress needs to stop it's recess!

      Tradition be damned when our nation is in such a state of confusion and disarray! Congress needs to be back in session so that the powers that be can exert the type of influence needed to pass Joe Biden's working middle poor class agenda. Taking time off from work when work is exactly what we need our Congress to be doing is counter productive. It also allows for the opposition to change the narrative from what is needed to what isn't needed. Obstructing and misinforming is going on at a high level because our representatives are not legislating about the truth of things.
     I know the Senate will be back in a week and the House will be back in 2 weeks but so much can happen in those empty days that even considering to ignore the possibility will increase the likelihood that the republican party will undermine our attempts to perfect our union. I am tired of republicans creating narratives that are wholly untrue and destructive while we democrats are not in DC to rebut them. It is easy to lie all day long about things when no one is there to challenge the lies. Our media has shown that they are more interested in reporting all they hear regardless if what they hear is true. So we democrats need to be legislating as a way to totally combat the worthlessness of republican rhetoric.
     I may just be being antsy about things but I have learned over time that to get things done the pressure is best applied when the work to get things done is non stop. No time for recesses or breaks, just nose to the stone and when the President's signature in on the necessary laws to improve our society then is the time to take a breath and then stop for a break. Come back to work now and get that work done so that those of us who are proud to be democrats can relax a bit because our representatives are on the job and getting things done with the same hubris and fervor that we expect you to exemplify.

(#4601) Unions and Democrats gave us the Labor Day holiday

      Due to the courageous work of American Railroad Union leader Eugene Debs and like minded union workers in 1894, then President Democrat Grover Cleveland signed into law the Labor Day holiday, https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/labor-day-1. Previous to that too many worked 7 days a week for 12 hours a day to make just enough to survive on. This has been our history over fighting for workers rights and why republicans are so against anything that helps the working middle poor class. Nothing has changed much with republicans as they are still the party of the wealthy and that involves keeping wages low so that the worker pool is large and desperate.
     What Labor Day means to me involves keeping the momentum of safe working conditions and children from being exploited for low wages. It is a day that reminds us that before workers stood up and fought through their unions, the corporations and large companies had all the say in how they treated and paid their employees. Workers were not respected nor desired once their maximum utility had been worn away through slavish unfair work practices. Unions changed that and that is why the powerful corporations and companies would like to see unions disappear. Then they could get back to mistreating their workers to their own financial advantage.
     The republican party is the catalyst for causing worker discontent as they do as their corporate donors desire. A vote for a republican is a vote against worker rights. This is but one area where republicans would dismember the social safety net. They would eliminate social security, medicare/medicaid, unemployment insurance, food stamp programs, equal rights for women in all respects. The list goes on and on and it is very important to republicans which is why they are trying to restrict voting and make it difficult for the working middle poor class to vote. Thanks to unions and Democrats for bringing us a Labor Day holiday and for continuing the fight for the rights of the disadvantaged!

(#4600) The level of hatred in the republican party for humanity and democracy!

      I often say that I hate republicans and then I get some blowback about not being like republicans. Well that is not my understanding. The republican party hates things that stand for democracy and I hate republicans for that, not for things that stand for democracy. Is that clear enough? I am allowed to feel my emotions when the emotions I feel are a natural progression of protecting the best of what humanity can be. When democracy and human respect are under attack I damn sure will get angry and put my emotionally charged reaction to bear on those who would take what we have built and smash it to pieces! I am not above fighting fire with fire when the time for that is upon us.
     In fact I wonder what the hell is wrong with others who are not as angry as I am when it comes to all of us being under attack? Do you not perceive our way of life in a democratic society as worthy of fighting for? Do you not get angry when some would take our rights as human beings away because they want to deny us our liberty and freedom to live in a civilized and just society? I wonder how you cannot hate the similarity to a virus that republicans often emulate? Let me say this, I am not prone to being a rebel who wants to fight for the sake of fighting. Instead I am a calm man who when provoked by the determination of the republican party to hate us will return that hate tenfold!
     Our civilization will not survive unless we defend it. It is that simple so those of you who find that hating is an abomination no matter what circumstance had better rethink that and allow for hate to exist when it is aimed back at the haters who began the hating. There will always be those who think that defeating hate with love is the correct course and I too would rather that be true but that reality with republicans is moot! The republican party is actually banking on us not hating them so that they can resume their overthrow of our democracy. They want us to be the good little sheep who will let them rule our lives instead of us ruling our own!

(#4599) The nefarious republican agenda is exposed for all to see!

      For 50 years I have been sounding the alarm about the republican party and it's cruel and undemocratic agenda. When I was 14, I was advocating for the voting age to be lowered to 16. But it wasn't and instead it was lowered to 18 from 21 in 1970, 26th Amendment. Still though I had my politics figured out the correct way. My grandparents were both staunch democrats because they had lived through the roaring twenties, https://www.history.com/news/roaring-twenties-labor-great-depression, and the obvious horrible great depression of the 1930's. The working middle poor class struggled to survive while the wealthy grew their income. Today the history of the selfish greed of the wealthy and their enablers the republican party is replaying.
     I vote in all elections because I know how precious my vote is to me. With my vote I get to participate in our democracy and with my vote I get to fight against those who would take it from me. Like with world war 2, our democracy was threatened from outside forces but not like today where our democracy is threatened by internal forces. They, those that threaten, have the same outlook on life. Both see others as less than their white selves. They also hold that the master slave concept of government is more in tune with their ideals of them being deserving.
     My steely conviction to democratic principles makes me a lifetime democrat and the values that are instilled within the democratic party of equity and opportunity for all, to name a few are foundational. The republican party is one of nasty segregation and the idea that humans are tools to be used by the wealthy. Not partners in successful enterprise but utilized as disposable. All of this is now in the open as the pandemic has revealed the inequity of our society and the republican party as those who are fighting to keep that inequity as the status quo. We are all human beings who have the right to exist in our democracy with respect and opportunity. The harm that republicans are still causing all these decades later must end now when we can see the enemy and he is our republican neighbor!

(#4598) No republican takeover of the House

      Even with the gerrymandering that republicans have already installed and the redistricting maps they are going to manipulate, the republicans forgot one important thing, policies. They are the most hollow political party on Earth. The only thing they stand for is lying, cheating, and stealing. They sit down for everything else. So when it is time to vote in 2022, the options will be do we want nothing and worse to happen for ourselves and our society for years? Or do we want to keep democrats in charge so that actual policies will help the working middle poor class? As the republican party continues to gut itself with horrific acts and behaviors fewer and fewer voters will follow them.
     So when a cad like kevin mccarthy beats his chest and says that republicans will retake the House it is painfully obvious to me that he is as delusional as his master donnie trump. The House will remain in democratic hands and our advantage in the Senate will increase. How do I know this? Because not even the Independent voters can stomach much more of the treasonous and selfish republican party. So between democrats and independents voting to keep the democratic majority in charge the republicans will be left with tantrums of despair and calls for fraud. They figure that historical trends are on their side but ignoring the fact that republicans are snakes that everyone can see will be their undoing.
     I often wondered how republican voters could stay true to their current form of politicking and I have come to the conclusion that they can't much longer. First the idiocy of Covid denial and anti mask and inoculation stands have depleted their ranks of rock solid voters. I mean c'mon, killing off your own base to what end? Plus they have totally alienated those who are at least intelligent enough to know that logic and science are the foundation of our society. If common sense and the scientific method go away so does the civility and structured life of the social contract. Chaos is a hard thing to keep voting for but if you are a republican it is your only reason for being if you keep voting republican.

(#4597) The awakened democratic giant

     It is plain as day to me that the pundit crowd has just not figured out that we democrats are engaged whether we tell them that or not. They do their polling and expect that they are touching the pulse of the nation. Well they are not as accurate as they would like to think they are. I heard all the belly aching about how the republicans here in California were positioned to steal the governorship because we democrats are typically lazy and unengaged in our own political future. How the republicans were fired up to replace Gavin Newsome and were already counting their chickens before they were hatched.
     Well that is a scenario that is more desired than real. We democrats here in California are not the same democrats that allowed the rest of the nation to sleep while in 2016 trump and his cabal were appointed. Since the mess of 2016, democrats nationwide have been turned from our lives to directly focus on defeating republicans and electing democrats. As will be shown here in California the democratic base here is ready and able to defend the governor's seat. We are not to be messed with when it comes to this phony recall election despite the national media trying to play it differently for it's ratings and profit margin.
     We democrats who are 46% of voters in California are now settled into being steady reliable voters and although the recall election is still 12 days away several million of us democrats have already returned our ballots. 4.6 million ballots have been returned so far and at least 55% of them are from democratic voters. I expect that the Independents who are about 24% of the eligible voters will split comfortably ahead for democrats. The republican party at about 24% of the electorate and the media that supports them will keep their narrative of promoting themselves as worthy of the governorship but the voters who are the real deciders will not be swayed by republican misinformation and lies. We democrats are here to stay and lead our state as well as the nation in 2022.

(#4596) Selfishness is the problem

      We always knew that being a greedy person would likely get you wealth but being selfish and greedy is how you keep your wealth. I personally think that being ambitious is okay but not greedy. Ambition gets one to a place where dreams are realized if things go their way. Greedy is like taking all the marbles and going home. Greedy is bad, ambition is good sort of. Yet the worst is selfishness. If I have all the marbles and will not play then no one gets to play marbles. When I was a young person growing up marbles were way cool and everyone had some. But in today's society, very few have marbles and rarely does anyone get to play.
     Selfishness is a disease of thought. What brings on selfishness? A mindset that there is never enough and what there is needs to be yours. For me personally, I think selfishness is a mental disorder. Sure I want some things for my self but not all the things or everything. There is a line between what is normal self accumulation and all out accumulation. In today's society there are the wealthy who cannot seem to get enough and then there are the wealthy who won't let any wealth go. Greedy and selfish in different forms. Our democratic market based society is at a loggerhead. Something is going to have to change or the whole system of democracy will crumble.
     For me I could care less about being selfish. I have never been one who has an ego to feed. I enjoy life in the simplest forms without having to judge based upon the dollar. I need to be healthy, fed, clothed, and sheltered and that is my selfishness but beyond that everything else is negotiable. I don't see the world through the lens of having things. I see the world as a place where all have what they need. The extra stuff is good in moderation and occasionally experienced but the idea of wanting it all is absurd when our world has so many who have so little. There are finite resources so hogging them all up is a death sentence for the vast majority of human beings.

(#4595) We moderate, liberal, progressives are about 54% of the voting electorate

      The breakdown of party affiliation is not an easy quotient to ascertain. Yet party affiliation nationally is about 31% democrat and more than half of the 41% Independents lean toward democrats. So with this kind of a margin you would expect that we democrats would have majorities in many more areas of government than we currently do. But we don't because of republican voter suppression tactics aimed at the democratic base and the horrible gerrymandering that is now the staple of republican politics. How do we defeat these twin prongs of disenfranchisement? Well we pass a sound voting protection bill at the national level.
     For one thing, anyone who votes for a party that can only cheat to win should be ashamed of themselves. Yet it seems that knowingly doing wrong despite shame is now normal within the republican party. They are able to disassociate right from wrong as long as they can keep their advantages. So selfishness and greed are the foundation of the republican party and getting them to loosen their vise grip hold on the selfishness and greed is proving difficult. What the rest of us must do is make republicans pay in ways that effect their societal standing. Shunning and ignoring them on all other levels that are voluntary.
     Stop normalizing republicans outside their acts of democracy busting. They are cads for doing to our democracy what they are doing so socializing with them after knowing that is like enabling them to continue their behavior and actions. What I have done in my life is to dismiss all who are not willing to accept reality and logically reached conclusions. By dismiss I mean exit from all contact with them. Family or old friend it doesn't matter. Some I have to keep a cool relationship with because of geography and social construct, yet by cool I mean nothing from me that resembles an outreach. If you are part of the problem my solution to you is that you don't exist in my realm of life. Period!

(#4594) Culling the republican base

      There is nothing we democrats can do about how republicans want to gamble with their lives. We give them the information from a logical and scientific fact base but they chose not to acknowledge the information. Instead they are either defiant to the point of actually dying or they deem other non medically approved potions as a solution. Either way they are either dying or getting immune compromised for the rest of their lives. They are culling their own herd with their decisions to ignore intelligence and factual proof in the face of dire consequences.
     I can only tell them that they are gambling with their lives similar to a game of deadly Russian roulette. I will not shout at them that they need to listen to the experts. I will not call them fools for not believing in the experts. I will not stop them from going forward with what they see as their right and freedom to decide their own fate in life. Yet it does bother me that the idea that knowledge, logic, and science are so summarily dismissed by them without any good reason for the dismissal. When all that makes us a society, the truth and facts of things, are derided as nonsense then my hope for the future of our collective conscience is downgraded.
     Yet by their own actions they are taking themselves out of the equation with purpose. To me it is a form of suicide and suicide is against the law. Yet they do not understand the significance of that. Yet when they do catch Covid and are hospitalized then they seem to get it. Many are telling others that Covid is real and that they need to vaccinate. It is often the way it is, figuring it out when it is all but too late. However, what is worse is that none of this is a surprise. The vaccination process has worked for us Americans for well over a century so for many now to be unable to connect with today's need for vaccinations is not only absurd but it is deadly.

(#4593) The new normal, powerful hurricanes and fires everywhere

      Like the frog who is in the slowly warming pot of water, we Americans are in the same scenario where the climate keeps getting worse year by year. As the frog continues to feel the heat rise slowly but takes no action so are we similarly situated. It is sad that we know the moral of the frog in the warming pot of water yet we refuse to come together to stop our own eventual death by extreme climate. The attacks on science and logic are showing themselves to be coordinated in that some in our society wish to live for today and to hell with the future. It is cruel and disheartening that those who care not a wit about climate change are sentencing the rest of us to their indifference.
     There are many of us who want to reverse the effects of climate change and we will not stop regardless of the ones who fight against us but not having a full consensus to combat climate change the time lost is excruciating when it is realized that there is no time to waste. Today the coast line in the Gulf Of Mexico on our southern border will be swamped by a devastating hurricane. Meanwhile the west coast of our nation will continue to burn to the tune of nearly a million acres. From historic hot temperatures to historic freezing temperatures the cost of adding to and doing little about the human effects that cause climate change will only grow greater and more severe.
     As our planet is unable to protect us from the solar radiations that will be coming because of our destroying our atmosphere and the rise in water that will cover our land masses the idea that the future looks bright for us, the ones who can imagine an intelligent future, dims precipitously. Yet the hope is that the powers that be will wise up before it is too late and move past the selfish greedy ones so that our planet can begin to heal and return to somewhat normal. The idea that our species will have to revert to living in caves at higher elevations is not what anyone should want yet unless we act it may be our last hope.
     

(#4592) Democrats cleaning up republican messes!

      Ever since I could remember, we democrats have had to clean up republican messes here at home and in the rest of the world. I can list hundreds of things that we democrats have had to do to right the wrongs of republican policies but the most urgent at the moment is voting protection. Of course climate change initiatives are being introduced to reduce the effect of dirty energy which republicans have protected like it is their duty to destroy our planet. But the most current event is the withdrawal from Afghanistan. There is no easy way to do this since trump had begun the process and made sure that if Biden was elected he would have to abide by this ill prepared event.
     Sure Joe Biden could have done things differently but second guessing through arm chair quarterbacking is petty and something republicans are adept at. But overall Joe Biden is doing right by removing us from the endless war that has no real chance of changing anything in the future. Trying to do a regime change like shrub the younger attempted was delusional from the beginning. The best part though is that we are not going to be there officially for the foreseeable future. The Afghani's need to determine their own destiny without our often duplicitous reasons for being there.
     Here in our nation though the problem that most needs to be addressed is the constant lying from the right wing that continues to influence vulnerable Americans into life and death decisions based upon fallacies. Our society cannot keep having a dual narrative of truth and lies that are equally allowed to coexist. I have been taught this since I was a child that lying is a punishable offence because it destroys the truth of things. If we don't have the truth of things then we cannot logically function as a modern productive society. Where even indoor plumbing is under attack because it somehow is an attack on privacy. I don't know but the whole idea of allowing lies to filter through our information systems reminds me of a virus that does the same thing to our biological bodies!

(#4591) Nearly 4 and a half million childhood infections of Covid-19 as of August 23rd.

      According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, childhood infections of Covid-19 are rising fast, https://www.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/children-and-covid-19-state-level-data-report/. Yesterday, a trumper tried to tell me that childhood infections of Covid-19 were a myth because she watched some Youtube videos. All because I told her that Covid-19 is killing children. It all started when she said Governor Gavin Newsome should be recalled because he is requiring a mask mandate for children going back to school. When I told her that children were dying in the South from going to school and catching Covid-19 she scoffed at me, https://www.mississippifreepress.org/15204/mississippis-total-pediatric-covid-deaths-double-in-a-month-with-sixth-child-victim/.
     Well that is when I threw my hands up and turned around and left. She tried to say well good talking to you anyway but I just ignored her and left. I hope she felt the discomfort that I felt from listening to a person so totally clueless and proud of it. I don't often interact with trump covididiots but yesterday was an exception obviously. It won't happen again with her even though she lives on my block as I will not waste my time again once I find out that a person is not living in reality. I have treated family with the same standoffishness so a neighbor is no problem.
     All this to say that information is all around us to be learned yet some people have an inner desire to hate and disrespect beyond what knowledge offers. Those people have no room in my life nor should they. I am only alive for what is the last leg of my life so as an imperative, there will be no giving any of it to the willfully ignorant. I enjoy intelligence and people who display that are always welcome in my sphere of existence. As for this neighbor and all those who are like her and is voting to oust our governor because they are ignorant I can only shake my head and get more determined to tell everyone that voting NO on the recall election here in California is the only thing all of us should be doing above and beyond everything else!

(#4590) The Senate needs to come back into session to work on the House passed John Lewis Act

      These traditions of taking time off from legislative work are outdated and disadvantageous to our American society. Marking time may be okay in the military so as to be ready to engage at a moments notice but not in our society at large. We need solutions now, not when it is convenient for our legislators to come back to work. I know the legislators are doing some work in their states but that work pales in comparison to the solutions needed to address our current national troubles. Especially now with the nefarious state republicans going full bore on deny voting rights to those they think vote against them.
     The republican party is working overtime to deny voting rights while we democrats are more often lollygagging about with no intent to hurry to confront those vote denying laws. There is no putting all the eggs in one basket here, hoping for ending the Senate filibuster. We democrats need to come back into session in the Senate so as to find all ways to combat the attack of republicans on our democracy. There will be no help from republicans in the Senate except for the possible exception of Lisa Murkowski who may side with democrats on protecting voting rights. But not even she is probable and is more likely improbable.
     There is an angst among us out here in our nation about what our Senate will do to protect voting rights. As we wait for an elongated Senate recess to proceed the angst just gets that much more intolerable. The powers that be in the White House need to be pushing so hard for voting rights protections that actually become law that having the Senate back in session makes that likelihood much less angst ridden. It may be just me but I doubt it as many I know are anxiously awaiting a turn by democratic Senators who see their roles as greater than the needs of our society. Their obstruction of the core fundamental role of voting is beneath reason and they need to be in session so that we can put it to them that their responsibility is to us not to some Senate rule.

(#4589) The mastery of Nancy Pelosi

      Let us face this fact, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, is a master at her craft. Hands down she is amazing at getting her caucus to align behind whatever is important at the moment. Not on single democrat voted against any of the bills before the House yesterday. There were at least 4 votes that were critical and not one democrat voted against anything Nancy advocating for. Now that is leadership! There are 220 democrats to align and Nancy was once again able to keep a diverse left and right of democratic center caucus together.
     Of course there was much at stake that was beyond the workings of the House but still to mold and shape a timely response is almost magical. I know it isn't some luck of the draw or a trick that is easily explained. It is hard work, determination and a steady hand that is needed to get things done when the nearly impossible is at play. Yet at this critical time in our country's history the absolute correct person to be leading the House is Nancy Pelosi. What is even more critical is the example that she sets for the Senate now to emulate.
     President Biden has some hard work to do as well as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to get the Senate to pass both infrastructure and voting protection bills. But that is the last leg of the race as it were, and the hefty lead Leader Pelosi has given us is hopeful if not reassuring. The Senate pathway is clear and all it is going to take is some intellect and a strong hand to get it done. I am glad that Nancy has shown the way and if the Senate can be led to a similar outcome the benefit to the American people will be felt for generations to come.

(#4588) The infrastructure bills

      The House came back into session yesterday and through the night there was no agreement among democrats to move forward on the outline of the human infrastructure bill. Which means that moderate democrats are having a hissy fit over the price tag. Well it is about time these moderates grow a pair and quit holding back the American working middle poor class. It is bad enough that no republican in the House is going to support the working middle poor class but for a few moderate democrats to join them is making me angry and the rest of our nation upset.
     What to me is a very modest human infrastructure bill, it could easily have been 10 trillion instead of 3.5 trillion, the moderates are acting like our society is doing just fine. I am sick and tired of that analogy of doing just fine when all of us are under water as to living a normal healthy life. The republican party is the worst of what we humans can be but for a few democrats to act similarly is atrocious! There is no time for quibbling about this bill as it is what our president wants and he is the one who is making it possible. So these few moderate democrats had better get with it otherwise the end of democratic rule in both Houses will end in the next election.
     There is nothing in the human infrastructure bill that is expendable so what the moderate democrats are fussing about is nonsense. They want to force certain conditions upon the human infrastructure bill with impunity. Yet the progressive faction of the House can also gum up the plans of the moderates on the hard infrastructure bill. It would behoove the House moderates to temper their angst and get in line with Speaker Pelosi and allow President Biden's agenda to come to fruition. This whole paradigm of the 2 infrastructure bills is beyond the moderate democrats in the bigger picture so they had better get a clue real soon otherwise the whole idea of infrastructure improvements will die in the House and be upon their heads!

(#4587) NO on the recall

      I was having a hard time trying to think of a topic that was important to me to write about this morning and although I did consider the House coming back into session today to work on passing the infrastructure bills from the Senate and their own work on a voting protection bill, I ended up with our California vote to deny the republican recall. They could not win in the general election and are now trying to steal the governor's seat with a special election. How can they do this you may be asking yourself? It is simple. In a special election, there are fewer voters available to vote because it isn't like a general election.
     Now those republicans who are trying to steal the governor's seat, they will vote like it is a general election but we democrats are less enthused about this forced election and many of us will not vote because we are too lazy and too otherwise occupied to spend 5 minutes protecting our state's immediate future. I hope I am wrong and the many more of us overwhelm this republican trick at thievery. Yet hope is not the best position to be in. I want to know we will beat back this nefarious attempt to smear our governor with the problems that republicans created. The recall is in the middle of September but the ballots in the mail portion of this republican imposed election have already been mailed.
     The ballots from this house have already been returned with an emphatic NO on the recall so that our account to defeat this republican trick is fulfilled. I know many of my like minded friends here in California have also returned their ballots with the same No recall position. But the many millions of us who originally voted for our governor, I have no such knowledge. But if we do our part and vote NO on the recall option then we will destroy what is left of the despicable republican party here in California. This is their last gasp attempt to be relevant in California and even though they have nothing of value to offer they have a chance to win if we don't engage and vote like our lives depend on it.

(#4586) The California recall; vote NO!

      The games republicans play! First their last and still leader trump, got us all infected with this virus by ignoring the science behind it and the logic to deal with it. Then when our California governor, Gavin Newsome, was left with dealing with a surging pandemic that republicans downplayed, they try to recall him over his attempts to abate the virus. So in essence, the republicans created a problem and then tried to blame it on a democrat. That is what this recall effort is all about. Do not be fooled by all the rhetoric and incorrect messaging that is accompanying this.
     If you haven't figured it out yet let me tell you. The republican party is not about finding solutions for our citizenry, they are about maintaining power so that they can deny solutions to our citizenry. Now of course that does not include the wealthy. So anything that is initiated by the republican party as a change in leadership be assured that is has nothing to do with honesty nor a noble cause. They only have lying, cheating, and stealing as their strategy and if you fall for any of it then they are one step closer to accomplishing their goal of antidemocratic power.
     So when the recall ballots arrive in your mail box be sure to mark NO in the oval and return your ballot with all the proper markings on the outside of the envelope. Like writing your name and date in the box and also fill in your print name and address. Return your ballots with a NO mark and let us put an end to this filthy sham recall effort by republicans. They like recalls because they think that we democrats won't take the time to vote. Well if the last few elections are any indication they are in for a rude awakening. The republican party has the money to waste on trying to steal the governorship but what they don't have are our votes so we all have to vote in order to make sure we crush them at this attempt!

(#4585) Getting the infrastructure bills passed onto law

      Nancy Pelosi is doing the correct thing getting the House back to work next Monday to get the infrastructure bills from the Senate passed through the House. As our nation is crumbling before our eyes there is no time to waste on traditional vacation periods. The rest of America for the most part doesn't even know or remember the last time we were able to take a vacation. Be that as it may be however the gist of this blog post is the urgency of passing the desperately needed hard and human infrastructure legislation. The best of who we are as Americans is being devoured by the worst of who we are as Americans and that trend must be reversed.
     It all begins with these infrastructure bills. They expand educational opportunities for those who are least able to afford it. Yet more importantly the educational opportunities help combat the growing trend of ignorance that is being manipulated to our own destruction by those republicans and power brokers who see America as theirs and not advantageous to democratic ideals. The infrastructure bills also give many millions of women and men and opportunity to return to the workforce where they can apply their skills where needed instead of languishing at home caring for children out of necessity. Not that caring for children is a bad thing but it alone stifles the creative mind in other areas where many could be more productive within their own lives.
     To reverse the trend of dumbing down our society we need to lift it up with intellectual growth opportunities that these infrastructure bills offer. Getting people busy within our society helping it grow and mature is amenable to not doing that and leaving people stagnant and susceptible to society destroying lies and misinformation. Opportunity involves people in ways that are positive whereas no opportunity leaves people frustrated and open to otherwise negative programming. Getting the House back to work as quickly as possible to pass these infrastructure bills is critical to beginning our path forward out of this trumpian paradigm of nastiness, upheaval, and chaos.

(#4584) Today I am 66 years old

      Back when I was a kid I thought that if I lived to be 55 it would be great. Back when I was a kid anyone who was 55 looked really old and had a lot of life's battle wounds for their trouble. But looking at today's population it seems that my 66 years is still on the better side of looking old. However, my life long accumulation of battle scars from work and play have me feeling very old despite my outward appearance. For me every day going forward is like dessert after dinner, what was a luxury in our hardscrabble raising.
     So I will never complain about my aches and pains as if I am deserving of anything less. I lived a hard life of rugged survival and adventure. There was no shirt and tie in my past that seated me in some comfortable chair with paper and pen. No, I worked as a logger, framing carpenter, and underground miner to name a few for a lot of my working life. My pen and paper were tools of construction and destruction. My office was all over the west coast including Hawaii and Alaska. Living as a single man who worked hard and played hard I knew I was burning my candle brightly as a younger man and surely would pay the cost as an older man.
     I did do something good for myself later in life by going back to school and elevating my educated consciousness from an ordinary mindset to a more full and rich one. So at least I didn't drive myself into an early grave then by keeping my head down and shouldering more than I could handle. Instead I rose above my labors and advanced into supervision and consultation. I am still adept at my learned crafts but my body can only take so many hours of it in a day. So I putter now with my construction skillset and hone my more mental political positions. At 66 today I am surprisingly happy and although living less than a modeled life I am content enough today.

(#4583) The House will be back in session next week

      There will be action on the legislative front next week when the House cuts its August recess short. The work in the House will be on the 2 infrastructure bills from the Senate and the voting rights bill that needs to pass the House and then move to the Senate. It will be an interesting week next week on all the legislation being passed. I think it is appropriate that our congresspersons are coming back, at least in the House, to get our nation moving on this very important legislation. What I had also hoped for was movement on the George Floyd policing reform bill but republicans in the Senate are dragging it out so as to stall or end the attempt.
     Which reminds me that we need to gear up toward the 2022 election so that we can get more democrats elected into office to help with passing much needed positive legislation to get us out of this working middle poor class repressive paradigm. Nothing should be done as a traditional means when it comes to legislation. All hands on deck to get our democratic agenda, which is the vast majority of Americans agenda, instilled into law. For too many long decades the working middle poor class have been looked upon by republicans as a scourge not to be touched by compassion nor equity. Well those days may be behind us and when the House comes back into session we will see that.
     The second half of the Biden administration first term will depend on those of us who turned out to give him the first half of his first term with a democratic majority in Congress. We must turn out again in even greater numbers to add to those majorities and let the republican party know that their style of traitorous, dangerous, idiotic politics has no home in our proud democracy. I know I will be doing everything I can to help us democrats increase our majorities in Congress as well as in the state houses. I look forward to the debates that are going to come next week about how to pass the infrastructure bills and how the voting rights bill takes shape and goes to the Senate.

(#4582) The republican party endorses death for children by denying mask mandates

      I am not embellishing this headline at all. When the republican party puts its crusade against mask wearing, a preventive strategy, above the health and safety of our children then the conclusion I have made here is more than obvious, it is confounding! Why would the republican party die on the hill of making children susceptible to a deadly virus? I can only think of one reason, they are following their marching orders from the deranged leader trump. Well the obvious is not going to be lost on the many of us and certainly not on the parents of children who become infected and die.
     The idea that mask wearing is somehow antithetical to republicanism is noteworthy. Only dictators or authoritarians can choose to end life without any logic or common sense. The republican party exists on the whims of their power hungry masters. So any republican, politician or voter is to be held to account when this time of viral infection is hopefully fully contained. There can be no mercy for those who would endanger the lives of children just so that they can somehow destroy our democracy. I would line them all up and sentence them to the cruelest form of punishments that civilized humanity can endure.
     I have less than zero sympathy for those who put themselves first before children. Maybe I am one of those who has more courage and principle but all of us should be like that. We adults have lived whereas the children have not had that chance yet. If we as a United States of America society will not protect our children and instead use them as pawns in a power move to end democratic rule then we do not deserve to be autonomous. Our diseased mentality of arrogance and lustful power is something that must be arrested and put out. Shame on our society and shame on all of us for letting it happen!

(#4581) The Pelosi effect

      There is one thing that most impresses me about Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi from the 12th District of California is that she is adaptable. She can take whatever circumstances that comes her way and forge a path forward for all her democratic caucus in the House. She is masterful and is about to display that mastery again. The progressives on one extreme end of her caucus are somewhat fighting it out with the moderates on the other end of her caucus about how the infrastructure bills (2) are to be legislated in the House. In other words who goes first.
     Well Nancy, being a wise woman who is worthy of any supreme court seat has come up with a Solomon like solution. No, not cut the baby in half, but more so move both bills at the same time. Now she is trying to rectify that idea with the House rules but knowing Nancy all these years of paying attention to her abilities to solve problems this sounds like another one of those. We will see but it does demonstrate her alacrity and creativeness in thinking outside the box for solutions. In running a simultaneous legislative process with both infrastructure bills she has effectively silenced the noise coming from both ends of her complicated political spectrum.
     What this also means is that Nancy may well get some republican votes for the human infrastructure bill that otherwise would never have come. Now that part may be wishful thinking but those republicans who do want to vote for the hard infrastructure bill are going to have to do some soul searching as to whether they can and then enjoy the credit back home as a victory. If they do then they will also be saddled with the human infrastructure bill and what they see as a detriment to their reelection chances. Because as we all know with republicans, it isn't whether they do good by the working middle poor class of United States of America citizens, it is whether they only do good by the United States of America wealthy.

(#4580) The uneducated are not experts

      So many times I have squared off with ignorant people trying to use logic as a base line to create healthy debate. And so many times I have been disappointed by those who would opine their thoughts because they had no plan at all to use common ground like logic. Oh sure there were sprinklings of logic but more so the exception not the rule. So after several years I just quit trying to use reason, analysis, and conclusion as my argument and just stopped any interaction with those who do not want to use the foundations of debate. I loved debate when we had that in classes. It was refreshing to not only learn all the specifics of my point of view but of the other side as well.
     But those days are long gone and now we have more opinions than assholes as it were. Yet the gap in logic and opinion continues to grow without much to keep it from shrinking. Except when we come to the virus. The virus itself will punish those who do not take it seriously. It has only one job, infect to destroy. So the likelihood of debate about the virus not working will have an outcome that is more than just disagreement. It will kill and maim those who do not take it logically. There is no walking away from a virus debate that is spreading by denying it. Those who do accept that the virus is harmless and is a government entrapment of some sort will shortly find themselves thinking other dire thoughts.
     I didn't wish this scenario on anyone but the virus is in control not me. By taking a cavalier attitude toward the virus and demanding the right to ignore it, many will find that having a tube shoved down their throat is not a pleasing outcome for them to survive. Their right to ignore the virus will have an effect on them but sadly it will also have an effect on others who have to exist within their realm. I personally have cut off all association with republicans as is possible years ago and that act has now made it easy for me to exist in my world without them about it. Because it is the republican party that houses those who do not think the virus is worth taking serious.

(#4579) Help the working middle poor class and alleviate most of the pain and suffering

      As republican politicians keep railing against help for the working middle poor class they are by default saying that the pain and suffering going on in America is more than acceptable. How dare they think and act like little gods who know nothing of the real life most of the working middle poor class have to live? How dare they disregard the cruelty that the homeless and unwanted animals must endure because there is little help out there for them. The republican party thinks that peaches and cream are our reality when the truth of it is that most must scrounge just to appear to be staying even.
     Yet it seems that there are enough republican voters in our society to keep them in power and thinking that they are correct in how they view our society. It is enough to make me sick to my stomach that there are people in our country who could care less about those who are not as fortunate as them. The selfishness to me is astounding as how can one who has empathy or anything nearing it just ignore it as if it is an acceptable choice. I will never understand the cognitive dissonance it takes to thump one's chest in pride while others are hurting and disrespected.
     Yet our United States of America society is one that has no real conscious to guide it. Instead the dog eat dog mantra of republicanism is to pretend to love a god as long as that god does what they say. I am embarrassed and angered at our society on whole and it grieves me that the greedy selfish still have a hold on our politics today. We democrats for the most part are trying hard to break the fevered spell of disgraceful republicanism but the forces that give no care to a just and equitable society, the wealthy and powerful, are fighting against us. Because the wealthy see republicanism as their vehicle to greater wealth and less democratic accountability.

(#4578) A sad ending for people who failed to learn

      It seems to me that those who don't hold to the science, logic, and common sense of things are the same people who in school didn't do their homework or copied off of others. You know the people who thought school was a joke, a punishment, or just a waste of their time? Well I have no doubt that it is these same people no matter how they arrived at their present state in life that still don't know how to study and learn. Those people who were slackers during their childhood and early adult years are the ones who are now unconvinced by science, logic, and common sense when it comes to the pandemic.
     They would rather cheat off of someone else's thoughts, like their local or national republican politician because so far those local or national politicians have steered them correctly in their own prejudices and economic theories. Well we who did study and did our own homework can figure out the proper process for dealing with a pandemic pretty easily. We don't need to copy someone else's thoughts but instead just follow scientific and logical guidelines with our own common sense as to our particular lives. The beauty of having a free thinking objective mind is that we can use it for whatever comes our way because we are not limited in how to think about reason, analysis, and conclusions. 
     I, at the time of my early education, would often get a bit angry at those who cheated to get better scores. But I quickly learned that I was actually learning while they were not. Which in a way made me a bit sad for them because they were cheating for scores but they were also cheating themselves out a opportunities to learn to think and act critically. The cheaters in life have become their own worst enemies in that they have inured themselves from the idea that knowing how to think for oneself is of any great value. So they follow their leaders who have led them and now they are paying the price. I still feel a bit sad for them but not as much as I should because it was those same people who have infected our society with their cheating ways to the point where we are a barely functioning democracy.

(#4577) The unethical immoral anti vax anti mask crowd

      I have actually seen someone say that both sides of the vax and mask issue are respectable choices. Well maybe not in those words but otherwise the same sentiment. First let me explain something. The Covid-19 and it's variants are deadly infectious diseases. There is no dispute about this since the evidence of well over 600,000 deaths in America over the last 18 months is obvious. Now that the disease is an airborne transmittal the idea that mask wearing should be an option is as stupid as it looks like as I type this. To keep from transmitting an airborne deadly infection the wearing of a mask when in crowds and confined spaces is not only ethical it is moral.
     Why is that you may ask? Well let me tell you. Because we all live on the same confined planet in societies that are structured around community. In these communities we function through commerce and social activities. The necessity for us to gather in markets and places of entertainment and other social and religious activities makes us vulnerable to each other if we are not protected by masks and other social distancing preparedness. You can logically and common sense wise see that keeping ourselves and those around us protected actually protects our society and its functions. Now those are simple actions to take, wearing a mask and social distancing.
     But there is another action we can take that would help even further. Like getting vaccinated against the effects of Covid-19 and its variants. Like polio and smallpox for example, vaccinations have been around for centuries to thwart the deadly strains of viruses that occur on our planet. This is not some new theory that is untested. It is fact and cannot be disputed in any general or even specific way that would nullify its truth. Of course there are some who are unable to be fully protected but that slice of our society is a very minute section of our populace. Nothing is perfect as a cure, but to deny the effectiveness of negating transmittal and the best known antidote that works is just plain ignorant and not worthy of any respect from me or any other human being who wants our species to survive.

(#4576) The Warnock factor

      US Senator Raphael Warnock from Georgia is going to have an effect on Joe Manchin and his stubborn stance on filibuster reform. Here is why! Senator Warnock is a black man, a preacher at a very sacred popular church and the most threatened democratic senator in 2022. those are facts that Joe Manchin cannot dispute. With the new voting restriction bill that Georgia signed into law earlier this year has put a bullseye on the back of Senator Warnock and the republican sharpshooters are closing in. US Senator from West Virginia, Joe Manchin, knows this as well as the eloquent Senator Warnock. That both are working on a voter protection bill that will get all 50 senators in the democratic caucus to support is telling.
     Not because it will pass through regular order as long as the filibuster is in place. But because once all 50 caucusing democratic senators agree to a voting protection bill, the next logical step is for the filibuster to at least be modified to exclude the constitutional necessity of voter protections. That way Manchin and others can satisfy themselves that the regular order toward bipartisan attempts to pass legislation will remain intact. I know that Manchin and others have stated recently that they will not do a carve out of the filibuster for voter protections but as republicans continue to abuse gerrymandering and other despicable tactics to deny and manipulate voters the obstinance of Manchin and others toward a carve out of the filibuster will lessen.
     I know I am being a bit optimistic here but eventually Joe Biden will weigh in on his belief that a carve out for voter protections is at last needed. He put Vice President Kamala Harris in charge of working some kind of magic to get voter protections into law and she will provide Biden with the shade he needs to recommend a carve out of the filibuster for voting protections. Once Joe Biden weighs in on a carve out it will follow that Manchin and others will reluctantly follow. To me, all because Raphael Warnock is working behind the scenes to make sure that Manchin et al. are inundated with the fact that Raphael will lose his seat in the midterms if we democrats don't protect voting rights.

(#4575) The budget infrastructure bill in the Senate forms its framework

     By a 50-49 party line vote, the Senate has passed the framework for a budget reconciliation, up to 3.5 trillion, infrastructure bill. This bill is the partisan bill that does not need a republican to vote for it to pass. The method was used to bypass the filibuster because the there are no republican Senators who would vote for this human infrastructure bill because it goes against their ideology of smaller government and only working for the wealthy. This current democratic partisan infrastructure bill is designed to specifically help the working middle poor class who has seen little to no attention for far too long.
     The importance of passing this framework is that now the individual committees in the Senate can begin to flush out the body of the bill specifically and fully. It also puts the House on notice that both the bipartisan and partisan bills concerning infrastructure are on track to being passed over to them in due course. Everything is progressing as planned as far as getting both bills to the House for them to put their own legislation with the Senate version and coming out with a product that will pass both the House and Senate and be signed into law by our new progressive president, Joe Biden.
     In combination, the 2 infrastructure bills will spend up to 4.7 trillion dollars toward upgrading our society without any giveaways to the wealthy. These 2 bills will address the needs of our huge amazing working middle poor class and will advance our society in ways that have been impossible heretofore. This is because we democrats have put ordinary Americans first and in our legislation the down payment on our futures is about to be realized at some point next month. I am proud to be alive to see this monumental approach to correcting the trajectory of our society into a more equitable and promising one about to bear fruit before our very eyes.

(#4574) The sham republican party

      Yesterday on the Senate floor a republican senator introduced a bipartisan amendment to the bipartisan infrastructure bill to clarify what he considered a gray area. It was a thoughtful and well intentioned amendment that was strictly there to clarify a sentence in the bill. I thought about it and although it may have been overkill it was acceptable to me as I couldn't reasonably see a problem with it. This happens a lot when a huge bill is written it can at times be interpreted in small ways to mean more than the intent of the language. So I was expecting the amendment to be passed with a voice vote.
     However, a republican from Alabama objected in that he wanted to add his amendment to the amendment about a sentence clarification from another republican from Ohio. The republican from Alabama wanted his amendment, which was to add 50 billion dollars to the military without saying what the money was for. Well 50 billion is a lot of money and given that the military is shoddy in allowing itself to be audited this was a dead end with democrats from the get go. As well the money would have come from infrastructure projects already funded for in the overall bill. So even though the republican from Ohio agreed to add the republican from Alabama's amendment to his amendment a democratic senator from Vermont objected to the Alabaman adding his military spending amendment.
     So another democrat from Delaware offered the same first amendment from the Ohioan and again the republican from Alabama objected because he wasn't allowed to add his military giveaway. So the obnoxious and disgusting republican senator from Texas offered the same bill and then the republican senator from Alabama objected again killing the original amendment. So democrats tried to help the first amendment pass but were thwarted by a republican senator from Alabama. Then the pernicious disgraceful senator from Texas blamed it all on democrats even though his fellow republican from Alabama was the one who killed the original amendment. I hate republicans because they are lying ass hypocrites who wouldn't be able to tell the truth if it would save your children's lives!

(#4573) A voting rights protection bill

      We are getting closer to the real need to get work done on a voting rights bill. The high court is showing that it doesn't want to touch aspects of voting rights that affect the disproportionate. Which is by far a scar on our judiciary that the robert's court will wear like a scarlet letter! So without much hope from the judicial branch of government to protect the rights of those who are being harmed by several state laws designed to do just that there is really only one way to approach correcting negative voting rights actions. That would be through federal legislation to set standards that must be met by all states.
     The courts would be hesitant as hell to change legislation that requires equal access to the ballot when the legislation is federal. So the need is absolute. If we are to remain a democracy that is. I would have thought that remaining a democracy would be critical to all aspects of sitting government but as we have seen with the appointed trump administration and his acolytes, that is not the norm. The trumps had and still have a vision where they remain in power like so many of trumps dictator friends around the world. To do that he has to recapture power and then dissolve the protections within our government that keep us free from madmen like him.
     The republican party is his culprit and complicit partner all at the same time. So watching closely what both do is imperative to keeping abreast of their latest gambits for power. So when we see the red state majority rule change voting rights laws to impede and encumber the democratic party traditional voter we are not caught unawares by their acts. But with little relief in sight other than a Senate rule change to protect voting rights the creative part of doing something else is upon us. I do believe we democrats are going to do something in the budget reconciliation infrastructure bill toward protecting voting rights but the cleverness of it must pass constitutional scrutiny. It is all coming to a head in the weeks to come so pay attention to your democracy lest this be the last election we see fairness at its heart.

(#4572) All hands on deck

      When it comes to trump and his many allegations of crime, it will take a village of all stripes to bring him down. It isn't just the blatant way he went about instilling his maneuvers of criminality, it is bringing out the intent. The intention of a crime is about the hardest thing to prove yet when we have so much evidence of the crime(s) it isn't the hardest thing to accomplish. But still, by bringing in all sides of the crime for examination, we do ourselves a service. So the enemy of my enemy is my friend is as good a place to add support as any.
     As most of you know trying to turn former trump officials who were intimately attached to trump during his alleged crime spree has proven difficult. But not impossible. So examining all the evidence through different perspectives will give us numerous avenues to explore. The more to explore the greater chance we find leverage on those who are still unwilling to tell the truth as well on trump himself as he is not a great defender of his own criminal exposure. I know that when you have inside information about what really happened it is tough to keep the defendant from projecting guilt.
     That guilt through the truth will eventually lead to the intent and then we will have the worst person ever appointed president by the short hairs. Democrats added 2 republicans to the select committee and now are adding another ex republican congressman with expertise in cyber issues and as well intelligence matters on national security issues. The committee is beginning to have a real bipartisan feel to it which adds to its legitimacy. Our national honor is at stake and if it takes all of us to bring down one of the worst instigators of American treachery against our constitution then we are better for it.

(#4571) Back to work on the Senate bipartisan infrastructure bill this morning

      After Thursday's disappointing day of little to no progress, and Friday's day off for a funeral, this morning will begin what is hoped for a cloture vote on the bill toward it's final passage. A lot of expectation today but we will see how it goes. Starting early this morning on C-span2 the drama will unfold. The Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, is pushing hard to get this bill passed on his side because he has other legislative items to address before the August recess is to begin for Senators. So a no holds barred process is coming today and I want to see it.
     We will see how much effort moscow mitch will put into either trying to break this legislation or standing out of it's way. The republican party on whole does not want to do a deal on something where democrats get the lion share of the credit. In fact, republicans would rather no one get credit for anything happening. Their whole agenda is to stall out everything and then blame democrats for not being able to legislate. So today will be interesting to see if the cloture vote passes. I suspect that it will since there may be enough republican senators who see beyond moscow mitch and want to do something for their own legacies.
     Sometime around 10:30 am eastern time/ 7:30 am pacific time the Senate should gavel back in and then start the process. I will hopefully be done with my morning chores by then and ready to sit back and just watch how it develops. Usually I like to get things done early so that some sporting event is ready for watching but this is even much more serious and important. No matter how it goes though Chuck Schumer has been on top of it and if republicans stall it out expect Chuck to move past them and begin the partisan infrastructure bill as a stand alone. Either way we democrats will be delivering for the American people and that is what is most needed at this time in space!

(#4570) The bipartisan deal on infrastructure isn't a done deal, yet

     So I watched the Senate again yesterday hoping to see the hustle and bustle of activity I saw the day before, but no. Zero! It is like republicans seen that they were part of something that looked like real legislating and then decided that how could they possibly do that! I mean, c'mon! They are so out of whack in being real humans beings that when they realize they have been even looking like real human beings they have to fuck that up. So yesterday was about a real waste of time, which by the way is something republicans are good at, so once again I am doubtful about everything that has happened so far as to getting close to a bipartisan deal.
     Really, I shouldn't be surprised since they have been infamous for faking real effort just so that can run the clock out on whatever good bill democrats are trying to create. Deep down we all should know that the republican party does not want to help the working middle poor class so keeping to their roots they are going back into a classic stall for time. There will be no senate action as of late last nights comments from Majority Leader Schumer as his frustration is evident. They need a day off just to catch up on their sleep but I fear once again that when Saturday rolls around, yes they are working on Saturday, they will be just as stubborn about finishing this bill as they were yesterday.
     Which is still fine with me by the way. If republicans sabotage the bipartisan bill this close to it being completed it gives our moderate democrats a wake up call that the rest of us have been screaming at them about. Then we may get some movement on the filibuster. If not and republicans find a way not to gum up the bipartisan infrastructure bill then Joe Biden gets to boast of America meeting its needs together. I will take either route but the route that makes the filibuster less attractive to our moderates is my favorite, snark. Today may hold a surprise or two so I will still pay attention to behind the scenes activity from the Senate but as of now slow day in the upper chamber of Congress.

(#4569) Yesterday was a really fun day in the Senate

      No, I am not still hallucinating from my recent bout of illness. I watched with humor yesterday one interchange that about had me laughing out loud. During a tiring process of amendments the lead senator on several of them, Delaware's Tom Carper and West Virginia's Shelley Capito announced a rule that the next vote would be for only 15 minutes so Senators needed to get down to the floor for the vote or they would be excluded from the vote. Well, 37 minutes later the vote was finally ended and me along with a lot of others were livid that the 15 minute rule that was just established had been so callously violated.
     I kept thinking, damn did they forget to put somebody in place to actually keep time? Anyway, while I was still yelling at the television, the longest serving Senator, Vermont's Pat Leahy, spoke up and did what I wanted to do in the same moment. He asked for a parliamentary inquiry into how long the last 15 minute vote actually took. Well the temporary president of the Senate conferred with the clerks and then answered Senator Leahy's question with 37 minutes. For a brief moment I wanted to howl a laugh but instead sat back and savored the answer. Not so with many on the Senate floor as they sort of erupted in guffaws and snickered laughter.
     Immediately Senator Carper took back the floor and announced that he apologized for the extended time and gave an excuse that soothed all our souls. He said some negotiations had been going on over the next 2 amendments to be called to allow them to pass with only a voice vote. It was getting later in the evening and this answer calmed everyone down. As the process continued with the promised instantaneous voice votes instead of the timed votes I actually laughed because Senator Leahy wasn't in the loop on the negotiated change as were many of the other Senators nor we watching on Cspan2. The culmination of the Senator Leahy question was to me a syncing of the minds in the Senate and we out here in the world and for that fun little moment we were all on the same page.

(#4568) Democrats, yes even Manchin, are working on another voting rights protection bill.

      I was encouraged to see that the John Lewis Voting Rights bill is not going to flounder. It will necessarily take on a different composition but at this point that is acceptable given the other options. As I have been unwell the past several days and left to spending too much time inside my own difficult to describe mind, it was a good jolt to my confidence to see that the one and only Amy Klobuchar is spearheading the effort to get a voter protection bill passed through Congress. I didn't say just passed through the House or ready for a vote in the Senate, I said passed through Congress with Joe Biden itching to sign it into law.
     That is the part that woke me from my own inner troubled slumber and washed me with a hope I had not felt for many weeks to months about a voting protection bill becoming law and wiping out the advantages that republicans in the States have passed to limit free and fair voting. What further captured my mind was the inclusion of Joe Manchin as a coauthor of such a bill. Now given that Joe has been an undeniable protector of the senate filibuster, it may surprise some of you that Joe would even waste his time if the bill were never going to see the light of day against the filibuster.
     Well that was the tricky part of what I read. According to Amy Klobuchar, all options are still on the table to find a way to pass the eventual new voting protection bill through the Senate without compromising the Senate rule Joe Manchin holds so dear. So I expect that there will be some kind of twisted logic that will prevail that let's the coming bill pass the Senate with only 50 plus 1 vote. I don't know the form of this new category of letting a voting rights bill pass but if I know Amy Klobuchar like I think I do now she will be behind its formulation. Thanks to people like Amy, we just may get our progressive wish list, albeit pared down during the Biden Administration.

(#4567) No one to look up to in the republican party

     When I was a young boy I was always looking around me to see who were the people out there who exhibited the best of what it is to be a human being. As you may suspect there were not that many back then either. In my little world there were a few who at times inspired me to be a better person, not through the carrot and stick approach but through just being really good human beings. But like all really good human beings there is the inescapable fallibility that always accompanies them. But I often didn't see the worst of what they were because they had learned the hard way and were not going to show that again.
     As I got older I did admire many others for different reasons but the root of those reasons were usually if not always described by courage and bold leadership. The rest of us who were too timid for whatever reason to stand tall and shout at the wind were gifted with these few folks who entered into all our lives, through one bodily form or another. But make no mistake in my case as I can only speak for myself on this, I took their example and applied it to my life so that as I continued to grow as a human being I was filled with more and more examples of the best of what it is to be alive and a human being.
     Now that I am old, and have actually taken many steps in the giants steps before me I feel a sense of reassurance that I, for the most part, got this whole life thing correct. I looked for people whose lives were honorably special and incorporated those same things into mine. I looked at leaders who were good and great in their humanity and courage and felt privileged to absorb their example as well. That was my life and in it were some great things that were done on behalf of others. That is what I learned from the dearest of leaders who were in my life. I wonder now who will be the example for those who come after us since the leaders now, republicans anyway, who are choosing us, so as to hide their own inadequacies, and not the other way around to exhibit their greatness?

(#4566) My groggy mind still despises the republican party

      Still under the weather with this what appears to be a stomach virus. Other than the constant headache, most all of my fatigue and pain is in my stomach/guts area. So as I type this blog post out just remember that I am not fully engaged in my usual imperfect self. :) I haven't been watching or reading the news for several days but I have no doubt that the republican party has not reinvented itself into a group that cares about the working middle poor class. That is not in their DNA as far as I have seen. They are all about the wealthy and the prospects of themselves becoming wealthy.
     Greed and power are all republicans care about. They want their own to do well, look at the trumps, and they want to hold onto power, look at the trumps, so that they can skate through life easily off the backs of tens of millions of us who have been shut out of their game. Our democracy cannot survive if we do not crush this current republican party so when I hear that worthless pile of excrement mccarthy say that he would hit Nancy Pelosi with the gavel when he wins the House in 2022, I cringe, not so much at his excuse of a joke about hitting Nancy, we know he is a bully, but at the idea he would take her job.
     As currently is I know that the census will let a lot of republican legislatures rewrite legislative district boundaries beginning in a few months and that is how mccarthy envisions his advantage. I still do not give up on the idea of manchin and sinema aligning with the rest of the democratic party and creating an opportunity for the majority democratic party to pass voter protection legislation. I may be being optimistic but there it is. If not then the real hard work of getting every back out to vote in 2022 will have to go full bore. There can be no slippage in our majorities in the House or Senate if we are to finally achieve a presidential administration aimed at improving life for the working middle poor class.
     
     

(#4565) When our representatives think they are more important than the people

      It is obvious to all who will be objective about facts and truths that the republican party is clinging to a philosophy of government that has never been foresightful and compassionate. We have a few of those in our democratic party but the vast majority of them are the republican party. So not only do the republican politicians think they are a god's gift to humanity they also think that they are here on Earth to decide for us what is best for us. Well, I know when I elect a politician to represent me it is because that politician has listened to me and other like minded souls and represents our hopes and dreams.
     Yet the republican party has that backwards as is noted in how they gerrymander their districts so that they cannot lose. So instead of being elected by a majority of voters whose principles are front and center, they tell their voters what is good for them and that they should be listened to because they know better. Put bluntly, this isn't democracy, this is autocracy. Which explains why so many republican voters are able to look the other way when their political leaders commit acts of treason with impunity. They expect that their political leaders know what they are doing and it must be for the good of them.
     This head in the sand approach to life is just nonsense. In my own life I make all the important decisions after I consider the factors involved. I will always have the final say in whatever decision has come before me. I am me and as me I am duty bound to be the best me possible. Not some hollow version or some cardboard cutout. I have honor and courage in my life and that is why I choose how I live. Not some other person who thinks they know me better than I know myself. Until the republican voter has come full circle in their own lives and the courage to accept it then they will continue to be playthings for other people and their outsized egos.