Month: January 2019

Kevin Drum takes a brief break from the  ongoing shutdown issue to tackle the hottest controversy on social media – the  Gillette ad dealing with male domination. The ad, pre-released in preparation for the Super Bowl, has already prompted  lots of press and even a call to boycott Gillette. And since the Women’s March will take place in just three days, It  seems worthwhile to send along the ad itself and Drums’s commentary about it.  Be sure to watch the ad first to form your own opinion before reading Drum’s take and mine..
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/01/whos-afraid-of-gillette/

Kevin Drum’s complaint here has nothing to do with the ad. His annoyance is with the Vox article that takes an extreme position about feminism. It states that feminists want to see corporations like Gillette fail. And the writer is peeved that a corporation selling men’s grooming products involves itself in the gender wars. 
All Drum wants to underscore is that extreme positions like the one in Vox can do a disservice to the ism which is being defended. . However, going over the edge with outlandish statements which this writer does. only makes the situation worse.
On this issue of the ad it is easy for me to agree with Drum. It simply conveys  gentle reminders that there are acceptable ways for men to become role models in defusing male aggression.  As Drum suggests, the ad will perhaps reach one – hundred million men which is close to two-thirds of all males in the country – remarkable coverage in the scheme of teachable moments..
 Despite the fact that some men will find the ad threatening or unnecessary, and berate it, the message will likely get through to a fair number. And no one who wants to see sexual harassment and assaults as well as bullying decrease should have a quibble with that possibility,  Once again Engler steps over the lineMaybe in just a few hours from now, John Engler will no longer by interim President at Michigan State University (MSU). The Dems are in the majority now on the MSU Board and he likely will be fired for making more inappropriate statements about the victims in the Larry Nassar scandal.
 Let’s hope he is finally fired. His hiring in the first place showed how inept the Republican members of the Board were.. And during his brief tenure he managed to keep the scandal’s waters roiling and thus hindered the healing process for both the victims and the university.  
He was the worst pick for the job. Engler had a  long inglorious record for his meanness and insensitivity before coming to MSU.  And while interim President he simply could not change his basic sexist attitude in talking about the victims. It will be beneficial for the university to have him ousted.
Here is  The  Detroit News‘ discussion of the board meeting taking place re Engler  this morning. 
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/01/16/msu-board-meet-following-englers-controversial-comments/2590880002/

Let’s keep up the heat on Mitch McConnell – because after reading this bombshell article below, you probably will agree that he deserves all of the pressure we can lay on him. Like a whack on the side of the head. this article from Alternet  goes a long way in answering the question of why McConnell  is acting as Trump’s sure – bet enabler. 
Just follow the lines in the graphic as you read the article and then wonder why this information hasn’t been made public sooner.. His marriage to Elaine Chao (now Transportation Secretary) immediately made him a multi-millionaire and thrust him ultimately on the road to becoming the Senate Majority Leader where today he holds absolute power.

Another huge perk from the marriage was his gaining of a wealthy father-in-law, James Chao, an American shipping magnate, who was making powerful connections in international circles. Chao  began doing a huge  trade business with the Chinese and Russian governments and meeting powerful leaders in both countries.   Mitch got to interact with these leaders as well. For their part, the oligarchs perceived that McConnell looked like a great mark; one who would promote their own interests with the American government. And sure enough  the millions started pouring into McConnell’s political campaign, the Leadership Fund from these Chinese and Russian oligarchs.You know the term – quid pro quo.
Even with the best intentions, McConnell is immersed in serious conflicts of interest. i.e. the swamp.    No wonder he has been been enabling Trump for the last two years. He has no allegiance to the Mueller report or opening the government  because its revelations might put an end to whatever links he has established with his wealthy international contacts. Check out the article and see why it becomes apparent that Mitch is compromised. And how is it that his wife gets to be Transportation Secretary with a father in the international shipping business?  Fearing discovery, maybe that is why he always appears to have such a woeful look on his face 
It is sickening to learn this information. McConnell is making personal  aggrandizement his first priority which puts us all in peril.
Pass this article on. More Americans need to know what McConnell is up to.
https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/how-mitch-mcconnells-weak-kneed-cowardice-makes-him-the-perfect-target-for-perfect-for-agents-of-power-and-influence/

OK. Time to turn the national spotlight on Mitch McConnell  to ask some serious questions. Today’s burning  one of course is – Why won’t McConnell let the Senate vote on the bill to open up the government which was passed in the House?  If it passed, it would force Trump to veto it – making him look like the obvious guilty party that he is. It  would put more pressure on Trump and certainly hasten the government opening.  So why the refusal from McConnell?  His stance makes him a co-equal partner with Trump as the shutdown increases the burdens on people, businesses and now the safety of the flying public. (See the next article.)
Greg Sargent, in this excellent  article in The Salt Lake Tribune today, asks this question and an even a broader one.  In the past two years at critical stages in the Russian interference saga why has McConnell worked to enable Trump when evidence pointed to Trump’s national security malfeasance? This enabling does not qualify as simply a Senate Majority Leaders supporting  the President of the same party. Rather McConnell’s decisions to acquiesce to Trump involved matters concerning the nation’s safety where partisanship  should not play a role.

Sargent points to another example of McConnell’s dangerous enabling. McConnell has maintained his absolute refusal to allow the bill to protect Mueller  be taken up in the Senate. After more and more information keeps being revealed about the scope of the Russian interference in the election, and the many Russian contacts by Trump officials, the Mueller investigation findings has escalated to the peak of national security importance
Yet McConnell stands firm on not bringing up the bill to keep Mueller safe for a vote.  Sargent even suggests the plausibility that  McConnell may have been told that the FBI had opened an investigation on Trump’s support of Russia over that of the U.S. If true, McConnell’s thwarting of the protect Mueller bill, looks even more questionable.. 
Now is the time to clog the government lines with demands that McConnell allow a vote on the government shutdown in the Senate. Lets call Stabenow, Bergman and Peters and register our grievance.. Send McConnell an email (could not get through on phone).    senator@mcconnell.senate.gov  Let him know how his obstruction of the protect Mueller bill and the opening of the government bill are no longer defensible.
https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/c ommentary/2019/01/14/greg-sargent-trump-is/
Another reason why the government needs to open.Here is a short article detailing a scary incident on a flight out of Atlanta yesterday from Daily Kos..
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/1/14/1826096/-Thanks-Trump-TSA-Slips-Up-Big-Time-Woman-Boards-Plane-With-Gun-and-Ammunition-in-Atlanta

Here is Jen Hoffman’s Americans of Conscience checklist for this Sunday, January 13.  
https://americansofconscience.com/

Working one’s way through the checklist elicits a host of good feelings. Users are given opportunities to act, make one’s voice heard, and be rejuvenated by the important work of others.
 Hoffman provides users with inspirational examples of people’s efforts to make things better for others – through public policy. the courts or simply by pressuring our members of Congress with phone calls and emails.. She encourages users to show their appreciation of these diligent activists with hard copy notes of thanks. One comes away from this impressive tool feeling much better about the state of the country. Good things ARE happening and the checklist provides an opportunity to become a part of the action. 
Thanks to the information provided in the checklist, we learn that Gov. Whitmer of Michigan is already having a positive impact on the lives of some Michigan residents. Check out the following:
Gov. Whitmer is on a rollEquality gets a boost in Michigan with a Democrat now  in the governor’s seat. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has hit the ground running  stepping right up to promote the principles of fairness and equality for two important communities in the state. 
She signed an executive order banning discrimination of people in the  LGBTQ community in all state employment and contracting positions. These people  can no longer be treated differently than their peers in state government and contracting positions or simply not hired due to their sexual  orientation. Check out the Washington Blade article below which discusses this important directive.
https://www.washingtonblade.com/2019/01/07/new-michigan-wisconsin-guvs-signs-orders-against-anti-lgbt-bias/
 She also signed another executive order requiring equal pay for equal work  The pay scale disparity between men and woman has long been recognized and challenged by women’s groups and civil rights organizations. This directive requires that all state and contracted employees be paid the same as those performing the same tasks.. 

Importantly, the directive also prohibits interviewers from inquiring  from an applicant what their salary had been in their previous position. This question helped job interviewers determine what an applicant might be willing to accept and was a typical ploy to keep women’s pay lower than that which men were paid.
Women would come into a job interview with the mind set that receiving a pay offer a little higher than they had  earned at their previous position constituted a fair offer.  They had no clue that they needed to be offered a huge increase to get on the same pay scale as men performing the same tasks..This hiring question served as a tool to keep women’s pay below that of the men’s and helped to perpetuate the gender pay disparity.  Thanks to Whitmer, the question  is no longer allowed.  
Whitmer’s equal pay for equal work directive is discussed in the article from WNEM  and is provided in the  link below.
https://www.wnem.com/news/governor-whitmer-signs-executive-directive-securing-equal-pay-in-michigan/article_2a3e92f4-1371-11e9-b03a-8fdb576448ba.html

Spending too much time in the toxic world of Donald Trump can leave one mentally drained. And this shutdown may be the most exhausting challenge of all. It has now become the  longest running shutdown ever – causing so much harm to innocent people….for no coherent reason….. with no end in sight.
Now in addition to this dismal. dismaying situation. there is  the bombshell report from The New York Times (NYT) yesterday that the  FBI had opened an investigation on Trump in May, 2017 to determine whether he had become an agent or unwitting asset of the Russians.
 This action by the FBI to question whether a sitting President might be a national security risk is incredibly damaging to Trump.  The news caused a huge reaction from a few retired intelligence officers last evening. They immediately asserted that the FBI would have been neglecting their duty if they had not acted on the evidence of Trump’s  explicit promotion of  Russian policy over that of the U.S. And they also pointed out that the FBI probably had even more evidence than has been made public to support their rationale for opening an investigation.
 On the right.  Sarah Sanders and Rudy Giuliani. responded with the per usual attacks on the FBI and the assertion that FBI agents and  the entire Justice Department  belonged to the deep state and were simply out to get Trump. Think about it. The White House spokesperson and the President’s attorney both chose to challenge  the actions of the  FBI  and the Justice Department outright  calling their investigation a set up against Trump. 
 If the comments made by these two Trump aides are to be believed, the Justice Department and the FBI have morphed  into simply  anti-Trump  institutions. and are  willing to lie about his behavior.  With this strategy, the Trump people can  dismiss all of the FBI’s findings  – including the Mueller report outright – calling them a conspiracy. 

And this leaves the U.S. in a huge predicament. The President and the pro -Trump Congress can simply ignore or attack any counterintelligence evidence which shows Trump in compromised positions with the Russians. And either Americans can believe the President’s denials or they can support the findings of the FBI and  the Mueller report.
There is no middle ground here. And this either – or conundrum  will at some point bring the country to the much talked about constitutional crisis ,,,, sooner now rather than later.. Below is the  NYT’s article reporting on the  FBI investigation on Trump. 
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/11/us/politics/fbi-trump-russia-inquiry.html

Pork barrel is a symbol for the appropriation of  government spending for local projects primarily to bring money to a specific representative’s district.There is nothing fair or appropriate about pork barrel; it is a mechanism used by the party in power to aggrandize their overall position.
 In the twilight days of a the Michigan Republicans’ Lame Duck session in late 2018, Gov. Snyder wanted to get certain  bills passed and he turned to using money for  pork barrel projects to facilitate his goal. Snyder started  trading dollars for legislators’ votes. Those negotiations took place during a flurry of activity four days before Christmas in and ultimately 113 million dollars worth of pork barrel projects were funded and Snyder got his bills passed.
In the Bridge article, the writer makes it clear that this type of horse trading was a first for Gov. Snyder. He liked being called the non-politician governor – more nerdy businessman type than wheeler dealer. However to get some environmental clean up bills  passed (which by the way was an excellent plan and worked) he resorted to trading dollars for votes for these bills. 
The way this works is that the majority party, in this case the Republicans, doled out the money to primarily Republican dominated districts. For example, Detroit, Flint and Saginaw combined received a grand total of 3.5 million dollars. While Grand Rapids/Kent County’s total take for projects came to 21 million dollars.  
And lo and behold  Leelanau County and Traverse City landed over 5 million dollars in projects. See the Record Eagle article in the link below which discusses this huge haul of tax dollars of which 2 million will go for the Grand Traverse Bay waterfront’s Discovery Pier project. The rest of the money was allocated for the Grand Traverse County Downtown District Authority Civic Square, the Grand Traverse County Civic Center amphitheater and the Tart Trails.
Which districts are chosen depends on the persuasive skills of the majority party’s state senators and representatives and their influence with party leaders and the governor. The great  news for northwest lower Michigan residents appears to be that these allocations will add to the quality of life for everyone as well as the tourists who visit the area. And  it does not come as a surprise that the GOP particularly likes  educational and downtown development projects which  add huge economic value to an area. 
However, it is a good guess that there were  overlooked Dem projects which would have helped considerably more people overall and provided assistance where there was a greater need than the ones which were ultimately funded. For example, Detroit asked for money for water projects.  The project was not funded. Pork barrel funds do not get reviewed. They do not have to show the greatest need nor cover more people. Pork barrel is used as an incentive to gain favors and to make a district’s lawmaker look more attractive to his/her constituents. 
That’s the traditional way pork barrel works. Fair or not the residents of northwest lower Michigan have become lucky recipients of this tradition.. 

https://www.bridgemi.com/public-sector/lawmakers-michigan-gov-snyder-swapped-pork-projects-votes-lame-duckhttps://www.record-eagle.com/news/local_news/discovery-pier-other-projects-receive-lame-duck-cash/article_0af0df1b-10c7-50d6-8a06-faec27cdb42d.html

There is an article in the Washington Post today which would make valuable front page reading if published in  every newspaper in the country. It would be a good reminder that the asylum seekers arrive at the border, scared, exhausted and often hungry – and they are victims.  
The writer of the article is Sister Norma Pimentel  describes the Humanitarian Respite Center  she and her fellow  Sisters of the Missionaries of Jesus helped to initiate and operate. It is located in Brownsville, Texas on the southwest border and focuses on helping incoming immigrants who arrive at the border seeking asylum. 
She frames the article in the form of a welcome letter to Trump on his reluctant visit to the border today. She urges Trump to stop by the center and describes what he would see on the visit.  Pimentel  gives a rundown of the  twenty -four hours the refugees typically spend starting with the time they arrive. 
 Welcomed with smiles and a nourishing bowl of soup, they take showers, pick through donated clothes,, learn where  they will be sent next to await their hearings, eat another meal, and then are given clean bed rolls for a decent night’s sleep. Most often, they leave in the morning after a solid breakfast to their next stop to wait out the time before their scheduled  hearing. 
Sister Pimentel’s paints a picture of kind and compassionate care-giving at the center.. Understated in her narrative is that these people are innocent victims. They are fleeing their homeland because it no longer can guarantee their safety or their children’s. Desperation drives them to leave all they have ever known.  Trump has fomented fear and disgust for these refugees.  In her letter, Pimentel underscores their humanity.
Regarding the U.S. government response – of course, lawmakers should pass thorough immigration reform. Included in that policy should be considerations for the human plight for the illegals who have made a home here, the Dreamers who were promised they could stay and the refugees and asylum seekers who flee for their lives. The U.S., the richest country in the world, must not allow its immigration policy to be dominated by those who hate and resent ‘the other’.

Sister Pimentel and her fellow sisters’ humanitarian actions serve as a reminder that the most important piece in all of this palaver about terrorists and the wall are the humans who seek only safety and a chance at a decent life.. Thank you, Sisters for your work. May your compassion and kindness become the standard for how to treat the immigration issue going forward.  Empathy, not cruelty and hate, is this country’s only way forward to greater unity and personal happiness.
(Breaking news just revealed that Trump will meet with Sister Pimentel some time today).Enjoy the article.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/10/welcome-border-mr-president/?utm_term=.cc6da23e6f61

The latest bit of news about Manafort’s likely providing personal polling date to a Russian leading up to the November 2016 presidential election should be hitting the headlines like a shock wave. The information, finally turns on its head the Trump claim that “There was no collusion.” It shows that yes, collusion did occur – at least by Manafort and we still don’t how many others. 
Still legible redactions in documents submitted by Manafort’s defense team indicate  that  Manafort  shared polling data with Russian Constantine Kilimnik  along with assertions that he he may have discussed U.S. sanctions with Kilimnik  but couldn’t  quite remember for sure. 
This stunning connection between sanctions and polling data fits squarely into the definition of quid pro quo – you do something for me, and I will do something for you. Manafort purportedly  shared polling data with the Russians which presumably allowed them to fine tune their social media propaganda with just those voters in states where it would benefit Trump the most. In return, Trump was required to eliminate the sanctions and play nice with the Russians.
With the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel, the Russians fed scurrilous information about Hillary precisely to those voters who were shown by the data to be susceptible  and likely to forward the propaganda on to friends and family. Some of those voters resided in rust belt states like Michigan and Pennsyvania which ultimately went for Trump. 
Resistance voters and Independents  received some of this Hillary dirt in emails or on social media and were shocked at the coarseness and egregiousness of  the messages. They were baffled by the question of where these lies were coming from never dreaming that they were emanating from Russia.
And now, after two years of denials by Trump and his  cronies, the American people have the answer. Personal polling data handed off to the Russians helped get Trump elected to the White House. He has been doing his best to pander to the Russians since the election to return the favor and because they have kompromat on him for engaging in this conspiracy he has no other choice. 
After this Manafort collusion news was revealed, the reality of it’s existence still has the power to shock. Like something our of a John La Carre novel, we now know that Trump captured the White House by nefarious means. Through intrigue, malevolence and greed a few criminal Americans engaged in an international plot to throw the election to Trump by conspiring with an enemy state.  
But we have Mueller on our side., And one has the feeling that Mueller will not quit until he has tracked down every single one of the conspirators. In the end, it will be so  gratifying to see them all doing the perp walk in their orange jump suits – especially the one with orange hair.
Here is the article from Slate discussing the redacted information which still could be read – a real oxymoron.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/01/manafort-filing-redacted-collusion-evidence.html

For those of you who plan to tune in to Trump’s national address tonight, be sure to sit down armed with the truth. Trump will be intoning in his sing song phony teleprompter reading voice a list of percentages and statistics which will be notable for one thing only, their duplicity. Trump will continue to make the untrue claims that thousands of terrorists keep pouring across the southwestern border, untouched by ICE and law enforcement. These terrorists he will opine will then be free to roam the country, committing their  terrible deeds on the unwitting American people.
According to the pundits, Trump decided to take his argument to the American people because cracks were beginning to appear in the GOP Senate.  His goal will be to create fear and to bring home the message that the southwestern border constitutes the nations biggest security threat. 
Fear, fear and more fear.  The emotion used by authoritarian leaders for eons. Forget North Korea, Russia, Iran and China. Folks, the danger resides right down there in places like Tijuana and El Paso. Trump will double down on opioid deaths and probably will even evoke the names of victims of crimes caused by rogue illegal aliens. He may  again trot out the rapists line. 
But what he won’t do for sure is come within a mile of the truth. It’s too bad that MSNBC can’t put a list of corrections on the running banner line scrolling under the image of Trump to keep viewers apprised of the real story. But his base,  who tune will be cheering at the end of the speech for their strong President and his wall which will keep out the hordes of terrorists streaming in. Sickening.
Below, Kevin Drum in Mother Jones discusses the litany of lies from Trump about what his wall will protect Americans from.  Drum does it in his succinct, clear way and leaves no room for doubt that the wall,if built, will be a huge boondoggle, protecting the country from a negligible threat. .
By the way, I will not be watching Trump tonight. It is simply too difficult to bear watching such a travesty and then imagining all the innocent people being hurt -all for his pathetic ego. (Just learned some heartening news. The Dems will be given time to respond to Trump’s claims immediately following his speech..)  Ah, the precious truth. .https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/01/six/

Kansan state Senator Barbara Bollier  – a woman of integrityIn the Americans of Conscience checklist there was an item about three Kansas state lawmakers jumping the GOP ship and becoming Dems.  Their addresses were provided in case checklist users wanted to send them a note of appreciation. Kansas.com provides an interesting article on one of the three politicians. State Sen. Barbara Bollier switched  parties from GOP to the Dems because as a bona fide moderate she concluded that the  the GOP no longer represented enough moderate positions for her to remain in the party..
Bollier a former physician, obviously believes that one’s principles take precedence over partisan allegiance. Not believing that the tail should wag the dog, she looked across the aisle and saw politicians espousing principles she herself embraced. She completely disagreed with the Kansas GOP position on a transgender issue and found Trump untenable.. She also endorsed Dem candidates for Kansas positions prior to the Mid-Terms which obviously infuriated the Kansas GOP establishment. They pushed back. And Bollier made the change. 
 In referring to her district’s constituents, she said “They elected me as a moderate knowing nine years of voting history that I do not vote along party lines.” Here is a politician of uncommon courage. She won’t be hog-tied to any political party – just to have a home. The country needs more politicians like her. 
https://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article222990385.html

Sarah Huckabee Sanders – duplicity and doublespeak Maybe you caught the tape of the exchange between Chris Wallace and Sarah Sanders in an interview yesterday. It has received tons of coverage due to Chris Wallace actually stopping Sanders in her tracks when she stated that 4.000 terrorists come into the country each year and then immediately followed with the non sequitur “And our most vulnerable point of entry is the southwest border.” If one were not listening carefully, it would then be easy to assume that she meant that these thousands of terrorist were coming across the southwestern border.
Wallace, thankfully,  said no,(and the rest is paraphrased) They are being caught in airports. Sanders persists with a “Yes. but” argument.  – They come in by land, sea or air but what really matters is that the southwestern border is the most vulnerable. You get the gist. Sanders intends to keep the number of terrorists – 4,000 and the southwestern border firmly linked in the viewer’s mind.. .The truth is that No connection exists.  Chris Wallace got it right. Suspicious aliens are primarily nabbed in airports. To see her double down and continue to obfuscate  knowing that she does it solely to bolster the need for a wall makes her a propaganda artist not a press secretary.. She  jumbles the facts with malice and forethought to make a false claim. 
In the end, Sanders will find herself on the wrong side of history. Duplicity and doublespeak will be the hallmarks of her role as Press Secretary. She will be viewed as an important accomplice during the most corrupt presidential administration in our history. Not a good position to find oneself.    
Here is an interesting article from Alternet detailing the Wallace – Sanders exchange.
https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/fox-news-chris-wallace-fact-checks-sarah-sanders-on-terrorists-and-the-wall-theyre-not-coming-across-the-southern-border/