Author: Celeste Crouch

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/

Jen Hoffman, is an amazing political activist whose efforts for the past two years have stoked the Resistance with hundreds of ways to thwart Trump’s agenda.  She continues to labor on behalf of those who want to take specific action as citizens to support democracy. These people believe that Trump’s rhetoric and decisions pose unprecedented  threats to the stability of the government and to the security of the American people. Hoffman strives to show these people  what they can do to stay politically active…
Hoffman has produced an Americans of Conscience  checklist which is rich with opportunities to become active in the Resistance movement.  The list will inspire users with concrete steps and elicit a sense of gratefulness for what  others already are doing to support the victims of Trump’s decisions.
Hoffman’s checklist is designed for action and to express gratitude. One of the first items on the checklist, to help ones neighbor, we addressed two days ago. Knowing that the Chippewa Tribe in Sault Ste. Marie was advancing toward disruption in the operation of their health clinics due to the shutdown, we recommended calling our two Senators Stabenow and Peters, to make sure they knew about tL this impending crisis. If you haven’t gotten in touch with them yet,, please call their offices Monday or leave a message today.
Here are some other things you might consider doing with the checklist:  Sign up to get the checklist on a weekly basis.  Specifically check out the Good News section to lift your spirits and maybe make a commitment to get involved. Write a thank you note, or call the person/s you think deserve to know how appreciative you are of their work. Forward this Americans of Conscience checklist to others who you think would benefit knowing about these activities or post on your Facebook page. 
Let me know about a specific link you followed up on, found intriguing and think deserves more coverage.. (There are too many links for just one person to peruse all of them.)  For example I checked on the Michigan Nurses Association valuable work to eliminate $9.8 million in medical bills for 9,200 people. Letters will go out next week informing northern Michigan  recipients that their medical debts have been canceled.  How wonderful!
Let yourself be filled up with all of this good news of people helping others. As you know, the pathway to contentment is paved with altruism.
https://americansofconscience.com/1-6-2019/

The fact that the Dems now have legitimate Congressional power and have hit the ground running makes the Trump shutdown only slightly easier to bear. The shutdown grinds on in an almost carnival -like atmosphere with the President tossing out words like “months” or “years” re the length of the shutdown like crumbs to the pigeons. He impulsively loves to ratchet up the fear factor as a tactical ploy. Of course the ones he truly terrorized with these last comments  were those people caught in the shutdown’s cross hairs.
It has become an accepted fact that this caricature of a President lacks all empathy. The only mention he has made of the people involved in the shutdown was as props supporting his decision.. He claimed yesterday that most of the federal workers furloughed or sent home  supported the shutdown. Of course there has been no polling of these workers, so per usual common sense makes it easy to dismiss his statement as pure poppycock.. What worker  with a mortgage  payment due and no money coming in would continue to wave his MAGA cap with overdue penalties piling up?
Along with federal workers, let’s not forget the 1.9 million Native Americans who likewise are now having their health care and food distribution networks disrupted. Given the human suffering involved, the fact that the Congressional GOP continues to go along, like little lambs, with Trump makes them accomplices to his dirty deeds..
 Only two GOP Senators have broken from the ranks. Cory Gardner, up for re-election in 2020 in Colorado, will have no chance of winning if he sticks with Trump’s shutdown. So he gets no points for empathy. Susan Collins, also running  again in 2020. continues her dithering ways, testing the wind to see how she should position herself. She .gets no credit either. Either one recognizes the stupefying irrationality of Trump’s blackmail efforts  or one falls into the self interested, submissive camp.
This terrific article in The Guardian today puts examples of real people into the immigration story. Writer Art Cullen discusses how the immigrants in these small communities tackle the jobs no else will take and help to buoy these town which would otherwise crumble. He believes that it is these stories that fundamentally will change the narrative and make the country a welcoming place for immigrants once again.. For now he predicts that it will be “liberty and humanity versus fear and intolerance”.
We are up for the fight….enjoy the article.    
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/05/trump-immigration-iowa-lose-bigly

The media seems to be doing a good job of keeping the public abreast of the government shutdown drama in Washington. Strategizing by Pelosi, Schumer  is getting good coverage as is Trump’s stone faced non- strategy.. But out in the hinterlands, where the impact of this shutdown is taking a toll, coverage has been skimpy at best. Here from the New York Times is an article explaining how the Trump shutdown has already become onerous for Native American tribes and promises to get much worse if the shutdown persists
 Because a  majority of the  staff at the Bureau of Indian Affairs have been furloughed, regular department services  have been either scaled back or shutdown completely.This curtailment of programs means that the federal funds intended for tribes now are not being  distributed.. Reverberations from lack of funding have impacted tribes all around the country.
 In northern Michigan, a tribe of Chippewa Indians in the Upper Peninsula faces significant cutbacks to tribal health care services. In the southwest, food programs now face the likelihood of being shut down, raising the real threat of hunger lin the middle of winter for the Navajo Nation. Tribes in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Oklahoma report significant problems in the delivery of food and health care services.
The partial shutdown of the federal government was supposed to focus on non-essential government services. What was the criteria for funding certain programs and not others?  Why  was the Bureau of Indian Affairs included in the non-essential category?  The Bureau funds basic  health and food programs for 1.9 million Native Americans in this country. It certainly should have been deemed an essential service. . So put this Trump fiasco down as causing more broken promises to the Native American tribes. Trump’ hubris and desperate pandering to his base is creating real suffering  which  sadly is going pretty much unnoticed by most people.. The media needs to do a better job of letting all Americans know that the human costs of this shutdown are real and substantive. They also need to keep hammering home the point that Trump, goaded on by talk radio, is blackmailing Congress simply not to lose face with his base. What a despicable human being he is.
Let’s call our Dem Senators today, Peters and Stabenow, and make sure that they are aware of the breakdown in services to the Chippewa Indian tribe in Sault St. Marie. Explain that it is their job to see that if necessary, emergency funds (either federal or state) need to be directed to the tribe if the shutdown continues. It is their job to do whatever it takes to see that this tribe receives help, They should be in contact with Gov. Whitmer as well. Their numbers are below.  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/01/us/native-american-government-shutdown.html

Today, Nancy Pelosi takes her place as one of the most outstanding Speakers in our country’s history. Her ascendancy to the Speakership for the second time shows her uncanny leadership skills and resilience in the face of significant challenges from the Republicans and some of  her own House members. 
For the last two years, Trump has labored to make her name a rallying cry of derision. Trump connected the  name Pelosi to all of the base’s resentments toward the old guard establishment in Washington in general and the Obama Administration in particular. Her name became a tool for goading the crowds to boo and hiss and imagine Pelosi somehow as the mastermind of all their perceived grievances. Trump’s misogyny got sprinkled into this narrative against Pelosi as well. To think that another woman besides Hillary had reached the pinnacle of government power has been more than the Trump supporters could stomach.  
In addition, Pelosi had to manage an uprising on her own side of the aisle. Discontent with her leadership had percolated among some of the Dem caucus members in recent years and came to a boil when the time came to elect a Speaker after the November Mid-Terms. A group of rogue House members actively tried to push for new leadership and some of the winning Dem newcomers joined their group. Pelosi handled the rebellion with mastery, using all of her tools and experience to quell the uprising.   
Nancy Pelosi is a survivor and a master politician. It is difficult to overstate her impressive performance over the years. She crashed through that imposing glass ceiling as a standout political leader amidst a group of ambitious, ego-driven House members – the majority of whom have been men.  Just imagine the number of egos and power plays she has had to manage and overcome over the years.
 Hopefully, in her autobiography (a presumption on my part that she will write one), she will reveal all of her secrets, so they can be bottled and distributed to women seeking positions of power in Congress. But today, let’s give her a rousing cheer for making history. Women and men alike can celebrate her outstanding record of public service and contributions to our democracy.
Enjoy this excellent article in Politico giving Pelosi her due.
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/01/03/nancy-pelosi-speaker-congress-profile-1077678

It makes sense to celebrate a great idea when one shows up and this one, in particular, certainly qualifies as a great idea.  According to this article by Kevin Drum in Mother Jones, the new Governor of California, Gavin Newsome, is floating a legislative initiative to fund a pre-k year and full day kindergarten for children attending California public schools. Now that sounds like a downright important idea.
For decades, the constant refrain from education scholars has been that the best way for a child to excel academically in elementary and high school is to be adequately prepared for kindergarten. To be prepared requires informed parenting and  emphasizing language development and literacy during the toddler years..
 Unfortunately, many young parents, especially those  dealing with issues of poverty do not have the knowledge or experience from their own childhood to engage in smart parenting.  They do not understand the importance of providing rich reading and numbers activities for their children to enhance their school readiness. As  a result, many poor students show up on the first day of kindergarten already behind.. And if they haven’t caught up with their age peers by third grade, subsequent remediation will not be able fill all of their cognitive gaps. 
That is why early childhood education looms as one of the biggest challenges most states need to consider.  California will be showcasing this state wide program and if it succeeds, can become a framework for other states to follow.  
It has been argued that a every state has one of two budgetary choices: They can spend money to educate children up front in pre-k classes and full day kindergarten. Or they can spend the money on the back end with  full scale juvenile detention centers and exorbitant prison system costs.
And here is the best news of all.  Incoming Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer plans to make early childhood education a budget priority. She intends to “focus on the first 1,000 days of a child’s life’ and “get  Michigan on a path to universal preschool to ensure that when kids enter kindergarten, they are ready to learn.”  
To accomplish these goals, Whitmer and those on the left will need to make it clear to the Michigan Legislature that this plan makes perfect economic sense. Paying for kids’ early education saves millions of tax dollars currently going for incarceration costs. After eight years of a GOP Administration in which Michigan student performance has hit rock bottom, this idea is one Michigan citizens should readily embrace.. Let’s plan to pay close attention to Whitmer’s budget plans and jump in with support when she starts extolling early childhood education.
Enjoy the article.
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/01/california-governor-elect-kicks-off-2019-with-early-childhood-spending-proposal/