In 1965, the Johnson administration enacted the Voting Rights Act, which was passed in 1964 with the express purpose of protecting the rights granted under the 15th Amendment.  A key section was section 4(b)  of Section 5 of the Act which was  designed to protect groups from discrimination based on race or language minority and required pre clearance of changes on voting practices and procedures based on the track record of certain states – nine to be exact – with oversight being from the Department of Justice.                                                                      In 2013, the Roberts Court deemed that section unconstitutional and, in Shelby County v Holder, it struck down that section as being not responsive to current needs. It was almost like the court thought that discrimination in the voting place was not a pressing issue, even in the face of the growing tide of blatant voter suppression in Alabama, North Carolina, Kansas  and Arizona. Other than the Citizens United decision, this may have been the worst decision by the Roberts court to date. Almost immediately, in many red states, including those nine which were under those earlier pre clearance requirements , pending and new voter id laws, scheduling revisions, and other restrictions began to be implemented.

What followed was a widespread, calculated aggressive campaign to limit access to voting in minority and other heavily democratic communities. All during the run up to the 2016 election, we were bombarded with completely unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud. The GOP continually blasted blue states, alleging that they allowed illegal immigrants and other non citizens to vote. When it was all over, the eventual winner whined that he did not win the popular vote because over three million “illegals” voted in California alone, thus adding fuel to the already intense xenophobia fire. In response to that allegation, the administration established the Commission on Election Integrity, headed up by the king of anti-immigrant legislation and policies, Kris Kobach, the Secretary of State of Kansas and the author of the infamous Arizona SB1070. With all intent of requiring major purges of voter roles in particularly blue states, the Commission met with such backlash from over twenty-six states, that the Commission was disbanded.  In the end, perhaps the Secretary’s adhering to several conspiracy theories came back to haunt him. The idea of voter roles being controlled by Washington instead of by the states simply would not fly and that effort was curtailed.

For now, outright voter suppression from inside the beltway was on hold. However, the fall out from Shelby vs Holder was still simmering and state legislatures were busy formulating subtle ways of denying the right to vote to large segments of the population. By no means is the fight over and now, another force facing the protection of the right to vote has emerged.

At this point, there are two compelling issues facing what is left of our democratic election system. The first revolves around voter registration, the integrity of voter information and of course, voter turn out. The barriers highlighted above notwithstanding, it is imperative that both parties, but particularly the democrats, need to be about voter registration and they need to be all about the integrity of the voting process on the state level. Too often there have been numerous issues with things like switching of polling places at the last possible hour, confusion regarding provisional ballots and absentee ballots along with  the actual loss of signature pages for ballot initiatives. A prime example might be the curious finding of over nine hundred “misplaced “ ballots in the governor recall election in Wisconsin – a find which allowed the governor to beat the recall and the election stood in spite of the interesting history of a certain county election clerk. In that same light, the democrats need to be about the formulating of a clear and relevant message – something which they did not have in the 2016 election and certainly still do not have – but that’s an issue for another time.

The second of these compelling issues is that of the interference by a foreign government in the 2016 election. Intelligence agencies both here and abroad all agree that our election system was tampered with and while it may or may not have actually caused a change in the eventual outcome, it most certainly did influence it.  This very point has been definitively confirmed by the recently released senate committee report which completely supports the IC assessments. It also shatters the excuse for the totally biased, partisan excuse for a report which came form the House Committee . 

What is astounding are two key points. One is that the current administration is still completely adverse to admitting that there was meddling in the 2016 election and that Russia and Russian hackers were in fact behind it all.  Perhaps there was collusion between the GOP campaign and Russia, perhaps not. However,  there is no question that interference in the election process both by utilizing trolls and hackers and by the manipulation of certain social media  platforms did happen. 

Secondly, there is likewise agreement among the intelligence community that this interference is continuing and the administration has, to date, either failed or consciously decided to not take any action to  either curtail or eliminate this  attack on our election process. While there is some talk about the issue, or more accurately talk around it, neither the executive branch nor the legislative branch has seen fit to formulate a plan of action on this serious matter. It is abundantly clear that the administration has chosen to continue to deny the existence of foreign meddling and that there was any collusion between the GOP and Russia. The message is on going and continual and constant and congress has chosen to either follow that message or to completely ignore the facts of the matter, opting to subscribe to the whole idea of a  “witch hunt” and the whole “deep state” conspiracy theory. It seems that not only does the White House get its message from Fox and Friends, but congress does as well. One has to ask the question – just how much does Russia hold over the oval office and over key members of congress ?

At this point in time, one has to have serious concern about the future – both the immediate mid term election cycle and the upcoming election cycle in 2020. Will future elections be bought and sold even more so than they already are ? Will future elections be swayed or even determined by outside influences, particularly by foreign governments who at least currently have widespread if not sympathizers at least deniers that a problem exists ? We as a nation are at a more than significant crossroad and which path we choose will determine the fate of our very form of government. It is indeed that serious and all need to be seriously concerned.

On numerous occasions over time, in one argument or another, one has looked at what can only be described as a frightening lack of sophistication on the part of the body politic when it comes to understanding political process. In years past, the subject of “Civics” was taught and most learned at least the fundamentals of things like government and governing. These days, that part of the curriculum has, shall one say, has been sorely neglected. In fact, in a recent finding by the National Assessment of Educational Progress ( NAEP ), only twenty-five percent ( 25 % ) of  students reach the “proficient” level in the area of civics. There are many school districts which have forgone the offering of a curriculum focused on civics all together. While some may not view this as a real issue, it truly is and the effects of this lack of not only proficiency but also  lack of interest in government and governing rears its head  with every election, be it local, state or national.

Across several articles, including one in the Guardian, millennials have one of the new large blocks of eligible voters and yet only 36 % turned out for the 2012 election and less in the 2014 mid term election. The trend toward anti – intellectualism has gained traction since  the 2015 run up to the 2016 election and that trend is gaining even more since. And recall, over one hundred million registered eligible voters didn’t think voting was important enough to even  show up in 2016.

It is sad that people still fail to see the connection between what happens inside the beltway and what happens in their neighborhood. What is even sadder is that many do not see that same connection even on their state levels. One can accept that there was and continues to be a great deal of disappointment and dismay with much of how government operates and yet, there is much that  benefits every day people, in spite of the highly complex nature of government and we would be no doubt in a miserable state of affairs without it. It is also important to note that how well or not so well government operates is a function of the who in government more than it is the what. In short, how much is done for the electorate or is done to the electorate is a direct product of whom the electorate puts in place.

Which brings one to that CHALLENGE. What one can hope is that, with all the chaos and proven misinformation floating around out there, not to mention listening to that complete circus know as the WH press briefing, is it not about time for you, the electorate, to become far more informed that you are ? It does not mean one has to be a wonk or an analyst or even a constitutional scholar. Those indeed abound and are worth the listen. What the challenge is to everyone is to take the time to engage  with more than one source of information and spend some time fact checking, at least for the pressing issues. One has to accept there is a good amount of “fake news” out there. However, there are numerous sources on the other side of that coin who present legitimate, factual information, leaving the judging of relevance to the reader or listener, as the case may be.

The country is seeing the complete and utter failure of government to govern. It is victim to self promotion, the drive for personal wealth enhancement, the enactment of destructive policy driven by ego and obsession and an agenda fostered by fear and ignorance . What is puzzling is that so many sit and wonder how this happened. The term “gaslighting” should come to mind immediately and how that bullet is avoided in the future is to accept the CHALLENGE. As a colleague so eloquently put it, it is time for a “COGNITIVE RECALIBRATION”, a rethinking of our posture in the overall scheme of things and how control of the nation’s future can be returned to the electorate rather than the elite few.

  

Late one evening in June, 1972, one of the many phones at the City Desk at the Washington Post rang and a report came in about a burglary at the Watergate Complex. A seemingly not unusual burglary story was assigned to two relatively young reporters – Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. After reviewing the initial reports, they noticed something about the burglars – one was a former CIA agent and in the employ of the Committee to Reelect the President -CREEP and this break in was in fact at the offices of the Democratic National Committee ( DNC ) which had its headquarters at the Watergate. As the saying goes, the rest of the story is history and indeed it was the beginning of an historical event – the resignation in the face of impeachment and conviction of a sitting president.The story shocked the nation but it all would never have been were it not for the dogged and determined reporting of two Washington Post reporters. True news reporting about real facts.
Fast forward to 2017. Speaking at the White House Correspondents Dinner – which the current occupant of the Oval Office declined to attend – those same two reporters addressed the critical importance of solid journalism and the compelling need for it especially in the political climate of today. Carl Bernstein led the remarks by saying that Nixon targeted the media in an attempt to divert attention from the blatant misconduct in the administration. “Yes, follow the money but also, follow the lies” he added. How compelling is this insight in this era of a steady stream of lies, fabrications and misdirections emanating from the current administration. The constant berating of legitimate news bureaus exhibits a pathos unlike anything we have seen in the history of presidential politics, a berating which seems to apply only to those outlets which ask the hard questions and refuse to pander to the collective egos of the West Wing. Time and time again the legitimate press has raised questions about discrepancies in statements from the oval office and statements from cabinet level officials which contradict each other. And time and time again, the oval office has decried the main stream press as being the purveyors of “fake news” – a term used more and more to describe any news report that challenges the veracity of pronouncements coming out of the White House and its inner circle.
The constant effort of this administration, as further evidenced by the pronouncements of the WH Press secretary, to minimize the role of the press and demean its place is a free society is appalling.

In an interview conducted in 1974, German political theorist Hannah Arendt discussed the notion of a free press. To quote “ The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed ; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed ? If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe lies but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history……… And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please “.
In the realm of politics, and particularly political rhetoric used to advance an agenda, the stretching of the truth has become commonplace. From the day the 2016 GOP candidate announced his candidacy with an aggregation of actors in the trump tower lobby posing as supporters, through a campaign full of exaggerations and conspiracy theories, to an administration rife with lies and liars, this so called smartest team ever assembled has constantly and utterly failed the test of credibility. The open abuse of power by a calculated manipulation of information has placed the country in a very dangerous position, domestically as well as internationally. It is the role of the free press to shed light on these abuses so that at least a significant segment of the populace will choose to be informed. Associate Justice Hugo Black wrote in 1964 (Jacobellis v Ohio, 1964 ) the press serves and was designated to serve as a powerfull antidote to any abuses or power by governmental officials and as a constitutionally chosen means for keeping officials elected by the people responsible to all people whom they were elected to serve. Suppression of the right of the press to praise or criticize governmental agents and to clamor and contend for or against change……muzzles one of the very agencies the Framers of our constitution thoughtfully and deliberately selected to improve our society and keep it free.
A very much today parallel demonstrating just in how dangerous a circumstance we find ourselves is not limited to the writings of our own press and legitimate news outlets. Take note of the remarks of someone who has and is living through the consequences of unchallenged suppression of the press. In a recent interview with Lawrence O’Donnell, Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova draws serious parallels between Russian Putin and U S trump. She relates that mr trump is now using the very same phrases that mr putin has been using for the past seventeen years. She adds, they share the very same views about their critics and the media.

Ms Tolokonnikova continues … mr trump’s supposed lack of any true political beliefs plays perfectly into putin’s hands. He is “….really concerned with himself, his fame and his wealth..” and mr putin knows, as a former KGB agent, just how to deal with people who are easy to understand and easy to bribe….. Democracy is eroded by authoritarianism and pro authoritarianism and there can be no doubt that the trump administration is completely pro authoritarianism. What is frightening is that, while most can see and realize that we are on a very wrong road, his enablers in congress continue to allow this charade of a presidency to continue. It has been, is and will continue to be the role and purpose of a free press to serve to inform the electorate of the status and goings on of their government , on all levels, and should any or all of those levels inch toward suppressing or even silencing that free press, it may be time to clean and cleanse.

A NEW FORM OF GOVERNMENT

As cautioned on several occasions, ignore what they say and pay close attention to what they do, one needs to be tracking this so called tax reform package. As per Jeffrey D. Sachs of Columbia University, the tax bill is plain and simply, a heist. It is gas lighting, pure and simple. Let’s take a brief look.

Of the top major corporations on Wall Street, – three hundred are paying 14% tax rate ; half of that number are paying zero in taxes ; and half of that number are not only paying nothing, but are getting subsidies ; with stocks at an all time high and corporate profits at a likewise all time high, and CEO salaries exceeding any level of sanity, why the massive tax cuts, especially as wages are stagnant…
The current plan as offered will add between 1.5 and 1.7 trillion to the national debt…
83 % of the benefits will go to the top 1 % …
People like the trump kids stand to gain over two billion dollars in tax free estate funds…
It will eliminate taxes on pass through income, the primary source of wealth for so many…
These considerable tax reductions for corporations will be permanent while the tax cuts for individuals will expire in seven years.. causing the tax burden on the middle and lower income wage earners – approximately 60 % – to actually increase
An item added literally at the last minute, with targeted benefits specifically for real estate developers represents $414 billion in lost revenue..

It is no accident that the trump administration has encased itself in Goldman-Sachs alumni, serving as advisors on this tax measure – rather Wealth measure – and one can be confident that this was part of the overall agenda all along. This is not a tax bill. It is a wealth transfer bill, moving billions to the upper ten per cent.

This bill was designed and formulated behind closed doors and issued on a strict need to know basis, completely excluding all democrats. There were no hearings, no expert witness testimony and no access across the aisle. This is how the GOP handled the most impactful piece of legislation since the Affordable Care Act, which, for the record, had numerous hearings and, much to its detriment, had over 100 amendments tagged on to it.
One needs to also ask the key question which all are reluctant to ask and the GOP is emphatically unwilling to answer – how, in the face of a 1.5 trillion dollar debt addition, will the cost of this monstrosity be covered ?
One can see, based on observing the GOP for decades, precisely how they plan to accomplish that. They will extract payment from the broad social safety net programs and those ancillary programs which support states and the communities within them. It is already in the works , as per senate rules established some time ago, that any new legislation which increases the debt will trigger automatic cuts is major domestic programs. The price tag to date will be approximately $120 billion, including $25 billion in cuts to Medicare. It will also trigger, by virtue of eliminating the “individual mandate” element of the ACA – the final nail in that coffin – the loss of health insurance for nearly thirteen million people. Also, it seems that, as part of covering the 1.5 trillion to be added to the debt, the less than esteemed congress will allow CHIP to expire, tossing nearly nine million children of working families off their health insurance.

This legislation had, for all practical purposes, not as much to do with reducing the tax burden on the middle class as it has to do with giving Wall Street corporations and the upper ten per cent a major reduction in taxes…. in spite of the fact that many major corporations pay a lower rate in taxes than most wage earners. This was nothing more than ransom paid to those donors who fund the GOP campaigns, keeping them in office so that their financial well being is secured. It is now a government of the donors, by the donors and for the donors.

NORMAL VS THE NORM

In the Winter 1993-94 edition of the American Educator, there was a compelling article written by one of the foremost authorities on social movements and socio-political issues, the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He addresses a trend which was of concern then and is decidedly of concern today. While the article is a bit academic in nature , it is worth the read and worth comparing the theory proposed much earlier to our modern day America. The overall premise, based on earlier works by French sociologist/philosopher Emile Durkheim, takes a look at stages of deviant behavior in a societal setting. It is true that his theory focused on criminal behavior, but by extrapolation, we can consider destructive behavior as similar with its impact on societal networks and how they choose to contend or not contend with it.
The article parses the theory into three stages: Altruistic, Opportunistic and finally, Normalizing. The first two pose interesting theories on how a social community may choose to operate either around or with a segment of criminal or deviant behavior. The third, Normalizing, is the one which by far causes the most concern. In terms of destructive deviant behavior, while altruism may be shallow and opportunism may be distasteful, normalizing goes far beyond in its impact and its very nature makes it very very dangerous.Examples of widespread destructive behavior are all around us. However, there is no place that exemplifies how far into the realm of destructive behavior we have travelled than that of our national politics. While there is plenty of blame to go around for this phenomenon, one can argue that behavior inside the Beltway often paves the way for the surfacing of seriously deviant behavior down the entire social structure. What is of most pressing concern is that much of this behavior has now become the norm, in effect being normalized by not only the insiders but also by the electorate outside the beltway.

Headline after headline provides accounts of money laundering schemes, extra marital affairs, kickbacks, contract fraud and influence peddling. Fabricating and twisting of actual events to suit one’s own agenda has become such an accepted art form that one White House advisor coined a new phrase – “alternate facts” – as being an acceptable way a Press Secretary to explain the antics surrounding the Oval Office. As an example,
In recent testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee, former Assistant Attorney General Sally Yates revealed a conversation she had with White House Counsel regarding the then National Security Advisor and his connection with Russian intelligence during the campaign and his subsequent lying to several senior staff, including the Vice President. The reply of the WHC was a question as to why DOJ cared about whether WH advisors lied to each other.
These behaviors, inappropriate at best and possibly criminal at worst, have now become the benchmark for conducting business. What is more than amazing is that, in this day and age, the unbelievable is believed, the far fetched is accepted, the outlandish is the conventional and what was utterly neurotic is now the normal. To add to the confusion are not just the behaviors being what they are but the explanations and excuses for them. Yes, the aberrant is being normalized. This is, in the opinion of scholars and political scientists alike, a very dangerous climate to be in. That being said, one might ask how did we arrive at this condition.

While I suspect there might be several theories out there, there is one which seems to be of particular relevance. In an article titled” The Age of American Unreason”, Susan Jacoby, paraphrasing Moynihan in her article in the Washington Post notes that “ dumbness has been steadily defined downward for several decades by a combination of forces. Video culture over print culture and the fusion of anti-rationalism with anti-intellectualism are specifically highlighted.
There is a cult of ignorance across the U S and there is a strain of anti-intellectualism winding its way through both our political and our cultural life. Journalists Charles Pierce, author of “The Dumbest Generation” looks at the idea that there is a trend to trust the least those people who actually know what they are talking about Rational thought is considered the enemy and critical thinking has become the devil’s tool. One suspects that enhancing ability to learn and cultivating interest in anything outside the realm of producing income are a thing of the past. There are numerous studies that support this contention but the studies that have to cause the most concern are the ones that show the widespread lack of knowledge in regard to government and the social structures impacted by decisions made by government – aka social policy. This lack of knowledge coupled with the gullibility produced by the rampant anti-intellectualism has brought us to this condition of “normalization” which is so dangerous. After all, it is so much easier to accept and not question than it is to take a critical look at issues, parse them out into their component parts and then decide if and how one will be affected and what, if anything, needs to be reviewed, reevaluated and revised.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Social Security Act was passed in 1935. It was a monumental piece of legislation and its immediate effect was to lift millions from the edge of poverty. As early as 1936, the GOP began a fight to repeal the Social Security Act – a fight which in several ways, continues until today.
Nonetheless, in spite of two GOP administrations stealing funds from the Trust, it survives and millions of the elderly and disabled are kept from destitution.
The Affordable Care Act was passed in 2010. It, too, was a monumental piece of legislation designed to bring access to affordable health care to all across the board. It was, admittedly, flawed form the beginning, with certain critical compromises made , one suspects, in order to at least get it passed with the aim of adjusting or amending it down the road. However, with the turn of the election, prompted by a major smear campaign, the Act was never adjusted and the flaws took their toll. Key to it all was the ability to opt out for two key components – the states, who could opt out of Medicaid expansion and the insurance companies, who could opt out of providing “essential services”. Both these elements were critical to the success of the ACA but the insurance lobby had its way. Eliminating the “Public Option” was also a key contributor to weakening the Act and so, the drive to repeal it began as soon as the 2010 election was over. Just as in the case of the Social Security Act, the GOP immediately began to push for the repeal of the ACA and, instead of discussing and debating with the purpose to amend, the House spent the better part of its energy – unsuccessfully, one should add, trying to repeal the ACA, calling for a floor vote over fifty times. The votes were strictly along party lines but the Act remained.

One needs to ask the question – what is it that makes the GOP so against safety nets, and in this case, access to affordable health care ? Was it, and is it still their record disdain for the then President Obama – a black, highly educated, articulate and engaged president ? Was it their need to take adequate care of the huge health insurance companies whose contributions keep them in office ?

Enter a new administration, led by a complete incompetent who started years ago with his attacks on President Obama, being a principal in the whole “birther” movement. The hallmark of his campaign was that he would immediately repeal the Affordable Care Act, only later taking on the added dimension of repeal and replace. His “promise” was to have better, lower cost health coverage for everyone. Not likely, as it turns out.
What it all ended up being was a floor fight of epic proportions among the GOP members. On the one side, the far far right so called conservatives who are full bent on repealing the ACA and making health care only accessible to those who can afford it. Sort of along the same lines as automobile insurance, without the discounts. This would include the complete repeal of Medicaid, health care support to approximately seventy-four million people. And on the other side, the moderates who, while wanting to reduce the debt and the debt ceiling, still are not willing to crush so many millions of people, especially those who are already receiving health insurance either through Medicaid or through Medicaid expansion under the ACA. The democrats, in this battle, simply do not figure as, by the numbers, the GOP can swing a vote majority all on their own.
The vote finally passed on the second introduction, laden with scary amendments, and then went to the Senate where the fight continues even though in the final floor vote, it failed once again. In the meantime, out on the street corners, people – some people – are awakening to the fact that many could very well lose their health insurance completely. The storm is continuing and even the strategy has taken a major shift from the campaign promise to repeal and replace to simple repeal and possibly replace down the road a year or two – probably after the next mid term election.
However, while one tries to follow all the ups and downs over health care and the fate of the ACA, one needs to ask the question – just what is the real agenda here. What one needs to look at is the ever present GOP agenda to have the top ten per cent pay little or nothing in taxes, contribute next to nothing to the betterment of the nation as a community and lay the burden of enlarging the wealth inequality even more.
If one takes a close look at the so called “American Health Care Act”, it is full of conflict and hidden agenda. It will cause the ending of insurance coverage for over twenty-three million people over the next several years, will defund Planned Parenthood, will accent the use of HSAs and will repeal all the taxes put in place by the Affordable Care Act.
One can see not only the drive to reduce the deficit by penalizing those who vulnerable populations which receive public dollar support – children, the elderly, the disabled – but will add to the coffers of that upper ten per cent by reducing the tax rates. In spite of the CBO scoring, the push is still on, under the guise of loyally fulfilling a campaign promise – one steeped in lunacy – to enhance earnings of the money crowd and step on the opportunities for every one else. Perhaps it is truly a conspiracy to pander to the upper ten per cent and as the same time, make quality health care accessible only to those who can afford it while their major contributors, the insurance companies continue to bilk the public with exorbitant fees and costs. Unfortunate that, in order to stay in office, the GOP has elected to punish the elderly, the disabled and  the children

Each year Congress invites the president up to the Hill to present a State of the Union before a joint session. Recently, though less than sixty days in office, Congress invited Mr Trump to address that joint session and present some idea of his forward agenda, though considering the content, one could easily submit that he invited himself. In what was tantamount to a campaign speech, interspersed with a huge dose of self adulation, Mr Trump offered the usual dose of egotism and fear mongering. It was not, however, what was said so much that should be the cause for concern. Rather, it was, is and will continue to be the goings on behind closed doors in this administration that warrants great concern.  In reality, there are three schemes at work here and all need to be closely followed. It is, in a manner of speaking, a matter of life and death for our nation as a nation.
The first, if you will, is the “… destruction of the administrative state…” as clearly articulated by the president’s chief strategist, Steve Bannon.
Surrounded by a team of close advisors who are devoted to principles of the “…destruction of the administrative state…”, the inner circle has carved out an agenda purposed exclusively to bring about the elimination of most of the federal government system, particularly those parts which, in their opinion, represent overreach on the part of all three branches of government and the executive agencies of which they are composed.This is, by no means, a single nation agenda but rather a significant part of a global agenda formulated in Russia by the extreme right wing political scientist, Aleksandr Dugin. It represents an extreme right wing posture and, while rooted in conspiracy theory, the aim is to reduce government to its most basic and most limited functions. For some idea of the direction this is going, take a look at key cabinet members who all are carefully placed with a hidden purpose to either severely cut back operations or eliminate the  very agency to which they were appointed.                                                                                                                   The second is the enhancement of wealth for the top ten per cent and that it might come at the expense of the quality of life for the other ninety per cent matters naught. It has been a long standing far right agenda we saw back in the days of the emerging Tea Party Caucus and now has become the overall marching orders of both the House and the Senate. With little or no doubt, it is purposed to virtually eliminate the taxes on the upper two per cent and use the cessation of government providing any of the safety net services it has been providing for decades to compensate. There are numerous items that support this proposition but one need only to look at the legislative package presented by the House to be convinced. The diluting of any and all regulatory packages such as Dodd-Frank ; the elimination of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau ; the elimination of regulatory packages, if not the entire agency from EPA and FDA ; the elimination for the Department of Education. These all point to the agenda to save and redistribute not just  the wealth but also the burden. Of these though, the prime elements of this agenda are the privatization of Social Security, the capping of Medicare allowed expenses and making it a voucher system and the block granting of Medicaid back to the states with the elimination of the “Ten Essential Services” currently available under the Affordable Care Act.                                                                                             The third plan is the calculated subversion of the political fabric with complete distraction, keeping the public overly focused on nonsense rather than the two above.Now every week, if not every weekend, the nation is treated to the rant and ravings of this so called president about matters which , gleaned from the likes of Breitbart and Mark Levin, have little or no basis in reality. At least, to date there is not any concrete evidence in support of them.In the meantime, while the gaslighting with these calculated distractions continues, the real secretive agenda is being moved forward. Far right wing baseless rants are being turned in to policy and we are seeing the undoing of decades of progress. Follow the road to chaos over the past two months and get some idea as to the direction the country is being dragged.

The gaslight guru and his minions have not only set a new low in terms of ethics but an even lower bar as it relates to actually governing. The Saturday morning tweets have replaced policy memoranda. Press conferences have been replaced by a circus of backtracking and excusing and the president is treating his position as if he were a corporate CEO , taking off every weekend to play golf. All in all, we are being treated to a complete farce instead of government and sadly, it will be the middle class and the less fortunate who will eventually pay the price. Dementia is defined as a persistent disorder manifest by impaired reasoning. One, in looking inside the beltway, can only conclude that this is the prevalent condition.

Some time ago, the Salvation Army had a public service spot which was purposed to demonstrate the art of distraction. It pictured an attractive young lady in a tight white and gold dress and for sure, most people viewing the photo spent most of the time looking at that dress and the curves it covered. What the caption asked was, “Why is it so hard to see the black and blue ?” The black and blue were the bruises on the young lady’s thigh and mouth. Interesting !

The every day experience is full of distractions – some of which are valuable as they allow a reprieve from the stress and strain of our work a day world. Some, though, not so much. As in the illustration above, the distraction there proved to be a way to hide an evil truth and therein lies the issue of today.
We, as a country, have been subjected over the past eighteen months to the rants and ravings of one Donald Trump – a not so self made billionaire who has little or no respect for anyone or anything that does not fawn all over him, bolstering his immense ego or contribute handsomely to his bank accounts. His conspiracy theory based pronouncements are all but ludicrous and yet, by some stroke of stupidity, he was elected president. Fear and ignorance have won once again. And, in spite of assurances and projections by his ever loyal inner circle, his interactive style continues to be beyond the pale of civil or even rational . However, there is a greater concern, believe it or not, than having the mouth from Manhattan sitting in the oval office and how he got there. It is what is going on behind the scenes after the inauguration is over.
While the new president continues to flail away at every institution and the very mechanics of government, we, as a nation, stand distracted from the greater evil about to rear its very ugly head and destroy any semblance of progress we may have achieved since as far back as the early sixties. The “Breitbart Congress” is pushing a very dangerous agenda with the idea that,as long as Mr Trump sits at the president’s desk, their proposals will be approved and their agenda will become the law of the land.

From the very start, the GOP tried to block and then repeal the Social Security Act in1935 and have been and continue to do so even to today. Now, while living up to its long history of being attentive to the wants of the few and ignoring the needs of the many, Congress is poised to repeal the Affordable Care Act. While the ACA has had its flaws, especially in the quite inept way in which it was initially rolled out to the public, it has been the way in which millions have been able to secure something which has been denied them – health insurance. Now, the GOP wants to repeal the Act and , in spite of claims to the contrary, does not appear to have any plan with which to replace it, leaving those millions again without health care. Proposals ranging from outright privatizing health care to the so called free market to forcing people to rely in those ever inaccessible Health Savings Accounts have surfaced but there is no agreement on any of this. And all the while, those millions of people are awaiting their fate, some in the very midst of treatment plans.
As recently as the first week of the new Congress, a member of the House has introduced a bill to essentially eliminate the Civil Service protections afforded GS level employees of the federal government. While the stated purpose may seem to have some merit on the surface, one can clearly see the opportunities there for senior managers to simply dismiss those employees who do not meet either their personal or philosophical schemes.
On a broader scope, one only has to look at the cadre of proposed cabinet members to see the hidden agenda of the incoming administration but, as most people do not pay attention to these matters, one day all might wake up and find things like no rules for protecting the environment, no support for public education, no protections from Wall Street reckless practices and oil pipelines all over what were once protected wilderness lands.
The incoming president’s choice for the Department of Education has no idea about the IDEA, about Title IX, wants to push everyone to a school voucher system and has no experience whatsoever in public education. His choice fro the department of Energy thought he was going to be an ambassador for the gas and oil companies. His choice for EPA is currently a party in a lawsuit brought against the EPA by the state of Oklahoma where he is outgoing Attorney General and his choice for DHHS has several sweetheart deals on stock in health equipment companies which he purchased shortly before he introduced legislation which would directly benefit those companies.
The question then is what, if anything, can be done. Short of orchestrating an amendment to the Constitution to permit the recalling of members of Congress, the primary tool for swaying this tide of arrogance and vengeful extremism is vigilance. Vigilance on the part of the citizenry, vigilance on the part of watch dog groups, vigilance on the part of advocate groups and, as important as any, vigilance on the part of the media. The media – not those dime store tabloids or outlets for conspiracy theorists and other extremists but the legitimate and purposeful news services, of which there are many.
The incoming administration has had and no doubt will continue to have a strained relation with the news media, especially those long standing, reputable organizations like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the LA Times and the network news services of NBC, CBS, ABC, and even the BBC whose perspective is often very interesting when it comes to U S politics. All of these, by the way, are seemingly anathema to Mr Trump.It will be up to them to be the watch dogs for the country and they must not shy from exposing not only the good but also and especially  the bad and the ugly.

On the night of the presidential inauguration in 2009, Republican leadership met in a hotel room to plan out a strategy of obstructionism designed to block any and all progressive efforts introduced by the newly elected president. This calculated and well orchestrated obstructionism took shape early on and became ingrained into the republican agenda for the next eight years.
Faced with an economic strain brought about by years of reckless policies, the country was brought to near fiscal collapse. The new president was faced with having to bring about a level of recovery not seen since the days of the Great Depression of the thirties. However, rather than work along with him for the good of the country, the GOP blocked every attempt at recovery. The republican strategy, replete with refusals to even bring measures to a vote, government shutdowns and a total lack of cooperation across the aisle brought about a log jam of government function unheard of in modern times. Now, a new force began to rise and in the face of wholesale institutional failures, an even more extreme agenda took hold and neither the democrats or the republicans could stem the tide of disdain for established institutions. Anything inside the beltway was anathema and a new extreme far right scheme was taking over. Enter Donald J Trump.
From the very first night when he announced his candidacy for the presidency, his message was full of venom, bigotry beyond comprehension, complete disrespect for women and an abiding disdain for a federal government. His verbal assaults on virtually any and everyone who did not fall in to his mold of doing business and his xenophobic posturing was considered anti American. He was playing on fear and, indeed, ignorance among the masses. A businessman of questionable ethics and a genuinely successful entertainer in his own right, the prime candidate proved to be a master of manipulating the message as well as the messengers. No one took him seriously and that turned out to be a mistake of historic proportions. He surrounded himself with loyalists – again of highly questionable credentials – and launched what was in no uncertain terms, a race to the gutter.
It is not necessary to recount all the insanity of the campaign season but what is important are few questions which will be a long time in being answered. Questions such as how did he get away with not releasing his tax returns – which no doubt would show his indebtedness and to whom, or whether or not he actually did make large charitable donations, none of which could be either quantified or verified even by the alleged recipients. Why did the media allow him to take a pass on all the half truths and outright lies being spouted throughout the campaign ? The overwhelming thing was how so many who supposedly know these things, did not see what was the eventual outcome long before it came to be and how did someone like Donald Trump find himself as President -elect.

One approach to an asnwer could he found here. In a 2012 town hall with retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter, the topic of civic education was brought up. In answering a question put forth from the audience, Justice Souter quoted Benjamin Franklin, who said that democracy cannot survive too much ignorance. Justice Souter continued.. I don’t worry about losing our republican government in the United States because I am afraid of foreign invasion…….. what I worry about is that when problems are not addressed people will not know who is responsible and when the problems get bad enough as they might do for example with another serious terrorist attack, as they might do with another financial meltdown. Some one person will come forward and say “..give me total power and I will solve this problem”. That is how the Roman empire fell. Later he added, if something is not done to improve the level of civic knowledge, that is what you should worry about at night.
The GOP agenda was calculated to not solve problems, to not capitalize on solutions, and to not move the country forward. No, it was and remains calculated to bring about a complete blocking of any progressive agenda and the erasing of any policy or power in a centralized federal government. In short, a dispanding of the republic and a return to a confederation of states.

Another approach to an answer also stemming from Justice Souter’s comments is the pervasive and complete lack of interest in facts.
One has to accept that each of both the print and the broadcast news media outlets has a particular slant. However, one likewise must accept that many are more than guilty of outright fabrications. While outlets like the Washington Post and the New York Times do have a left slant, they are still reliable sources for factual information as they have been for many years. This is also true of a number of other print news outlets. In the broadcast world, MSNBC is indeed a left slant site but we all know that and accept that. One has to admit that their on air talent does do seriously in depth research on their stories and they do evoke discussion.
On the other hand, the far right side of matters really does fall in to the category of the ridiculous when it comes to news. Brietbart, Limbaugh, Alex Jones,Newsmax – really ! It is almost laughable if so many did not take their kool ade as their gospel. But FOX news is a major real culprit here. Not much that comes out of this – at least from their pundits – has much in the way of any basis in fact. One such pundit even admitted publicly on the air that he was not a journalist but rather an entertainer. But should a so called news source be listed as entertainment ?

The sad thing is, getting back to Justice Souter’s comment, that for over fifty per cent of those between thirty and sixty-five, Fox is their sole news source. Is it any wonder that we find ourselves in the mess we are in. So many who bothered to vote this election cycle noted that they were sick and tired of the failures of Washington and the seeming inability to get anything done on behalf of the people. What they invariably failed to ask is not the what but the why and this is where so many news outlets fail. The GOP strategy is calculated to make certain nothing of progress happens and these news source for so many simply go along with that strategy mostly for the sake of ratings. They and as a result, the public are still not raising the question why and , while it might be argued, a la Chris Wallace, that fact checking is not the purview of a newscaster, it is an absolute necessity for the viewing public.

And finally, there is one more element in this tragedy that gave us Trump as president. Aside from the smear campaigning and all the rhetoric and the playing to the fears and phobias across the board,there is this question. Approximately 62.5 million voters voted for Hillary ; approximately 61.2 million voted for Trump; these figures may be revised to reflect that Hillary received near 1.5 million votes more than Trump. What is frightening is the last of three statistics – nearly 100 million eligible voters simply did not show up to vote at all. Restrictive voter laws enacted by GOP controlled state legislatures was a factor, though probably not as critical as one would think. Simple alienation from the process is also a part. However, straight out voter apathy remains a major, if not the major factor in our electoral process. For example – in 1968, the turn out of eligible voters was 60 % ; in 1972, 55 % ; in 1980, 52 % ; in 1992, 55 % ; in 2012, 54 %. In 2016, though figures are still being calculated, it appears that 57 % will be the figure. This is nothing short of a sad commentary on the level of civic engagement on the part of the “ voting public”. By contrast, France shows 71 %, Belgium, 87 %, Sweden, 82 %. It must be said, in fairness, Canada shows 62 %,better but not by much.

All in all, the 2016 election was not only what one could call a referendum on our entire process and the elements which factor in to an election, it is indeed an indication of what this nation has become and what sort of country the voters want it to be, at least for the next four years. One dares to say – we will pay the price for flowing kool ade, fear and ignorance ! Hopefully, mistakes made will be lessons learned.

Some time ago the question was asked as to how this nation took such a hard right turn and found itself held hostage by the tea party and its unreasonable and borderline irrational agenda. The vinegar of the late sixties had turned in to the venom of our time and the ability to reach any sort of middle ground on the spectrum of important issues has long since been abandoned.One cannot deny that tracing this frightening path is the path of the Republican party and over time, its driving the U S into what is clearly the “Great Regression” ! It is likewise clear that the future agenda for the GOP is to turn back the progress made since the turn of the last century, destroy a federal government, reducing it to simply a trade and war machine – all geared toward profiteering – and return to the days of a confederation of independent states.
While one can stipulate to a certain level of partiality in these discussions, the track of the GOP is almost irrefutable. It is rife with policy and process which has either directly or indirectly attacked so much of those elements in every day life which benefit the vast majority of our citizenry.
On 14 August 1935, the Social Security Act was passed. Over the decades, social security has kept literally millions out of the grip of dire poverty. It has provided, though lean, some income for those who have none or those who are disabled or survivors. It is indeed social insurance. On 15 August 1935, the Republican party began its drive to repeal the Act and return those millions to a life paralleled to the worst conditions in third world countries. To this day, that quest continues with attempts time after time to privatize the Act and turn over the management of it to the robber barons of Wall Street. Curious, the GOP  nominee for the presidency and his vice presidential pick are well in tune with that quest.

In 2010, Congress passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Within weeks, the drive to repeal this legislation had begun. While the Act itself was flawed on some respects and the sponsors caved on certain essential elements which were critical to success, the blanket opposition was unmistakably GOP and specifically Tea Party. The Administration’s handling of the roll out was at best a disaster and the Secretary of DHHS failed miserably in following basic procedures for the implementation of such a broad scale program. Nevertheless, there was nothing but calculated opposition from Congress who no less than fifty-two times wasted time, energy and funds trying to repeal this monumental piece of legislation. Rather than discuss its merits and work toward repairing the deficiencies in the Act, the GOP preferred to waste its time trying to scrub the entire Act, this in spite of the fact that millions who never had access to heath insurance now had that opportunity. The GOP simply caved to the insurance lobby. It is well know that near all of the major industrialized nations, including those of Scandinavia and the United Kingdom and others have some system of universal health care. Nevertheless, the GOP fought it from the beginning, just as they did Social Security and just as in the case of Social Security, that obstruction continues to this day.

No one can contest that there is an increasing level of gun violence in this country. While the official statistics may be seen as showing a down trend in crime overall, the instances of gun violence have not only increased but have intensified. Some instances include 2007, thirty-two killed at Virginia Tech ; 2008, five killed at Northern Illinois University ; 2009, thirteen killed at Fort Hood , Texas ; 2012, twenty-six killed at Newtown Connecticut ;2012, 12 killed in Washington,D.C. ; 2011, six killed in Tucson, Arizona ; 2012, twelve killed at Aurora Colorado ; 2015, nine killed in Charleston, South Carolina ; 2016, fifty killed in Orlando, Florida ; and in 2016, five police officers killed in Dallas Texas.The country is demanding answers, some of which may never come.  However, with the prospect of more and more of these attacks, most with military style AR-15 rifles and high capacity magazine Glock pistols,the threat could be lessened to some degree by instituting some measure of common sense firearms control. Accept that these attacks may not have been stopped, perhaps the severity of them could have been lessened and perhaps some even prevented. Even one would be invaluable. In several national polls over the period of those years, 92% of people polled agreed that universal background checks for ALL purchases of firearms would be a serious step in the right direction. 89% of firearms owners agreed and over 80 % of NRA members likewise agreed. Nonetheless, when the vote came to the floor in the U S Senate, it went down in utter defeat. It was never taken up in the House. The GOP, in controlling the vote, caved to the NRA and made certain that there would be no legislation which even closely resembled gun control, common sense or not. And so, while some of these senseless tragedies will visit upon us again, the few that just might be stopped will not !

In 1872, the federal government set aside the Yellowstone Park for all to enjoy. In 1933, President Theodore Roosevelt established the National Park Service which took over the management of Yellowstone along with, over time, fifty-eight other national parks. These indeed are the marvels of our nation and are enjoyed by people form nations all over the globe. Millions come here to to see the wonder that is Yellowstone, the awesomeness of the Grand Canyon, the splendor of Arches and Canyonland, the beaity of the Great Smokey Mountains and the sheer unanswerable nature of the Mesa Verde. These are solemn lands, protected by the National Park Service under the Department of the Interior.
Now many members of the GOP, sadly especially the Congressional delegations from Arizona and Utah particularly, want to divest the federal government of their role with the national parks and revert that to the states which can open it up for development. In Arizona, Congressman Trent Franks, on more than one occasion, has introduced legislation to open the Grand Canyon National Park to uranium mining.In Utah home of Bryce, Arches and Zion, Rep. Bishop and Senator Lee are pushing legislation to force the federal government to cede ALL national park and wilderness holdings to the states with the express aim to open these lands to commercial developers.
The agenda is clear. remove any and all things that are there to enjoy unless they make someone or some group richer than they already are. It is indeed sad that the GOP has lost all sense of aesthetics and any taste for the gifts from the Creator.

Speaking of gifts, one of the great gifts, or rights, bestowed on citizens of this country is the right to Vote. As per the Fifteenth Amendment and the Voter Rights Act of 1965, all citizens have the right to vote and to vote their conscience. The Supreme Court gutting Part 5 of the Act notwithstanding, ( that part that mandates certain states have federal approval before making changes to their voting procedures ) we ALL have the right to vote. Red state GOP controlled legislatures don’t seem to see it that way. Phony voter fraud legislation abounds and ridiculous ID laws likewise. Case in point – Pennsylvania. In their action to federal court seeking approval for their voter ID laws, etc, they even stipulated in their complaint that there was no evidence of voter fraud prior to their filing. They just wanted to prevent it in the future. REALLY. And then there is the case of Arizona. In Arizona, the County recorder – the person responsible for implementing voter procedures – cut the number of voting places from over two hundred to sixty for the Presidential Preference Primary. This was in Maricopa County where near 74 % of the state’s 6.4 million people live. The Secretary of State, who is ultimately responsible as the chief election officer for the state, simply blew it off. These are just two of the many examples of the hidden agenda of the GOP across the nation. Maybe it is time for the courts to take a long hard look at this !

Let’s face it. The GOP track record working on behalf of this country is a bit dismal. At least since to post WW II era, through the Cold War period, we have had to put up with one war after another, usually less than justified or, in one case, even illegal. We have had to spend enormous amount of funds to support these ventures into insanity and then the Democrats who followed had to pick up the costs and bail out the those damaged by the profiteering war machine. Accepting some slant here, and also, it is not quite that cut and dry, the case can be made. After all, it was a GOP administration that not only got us in to an illegal war that lasted over a decade but, with the cost of two wars waged simultaneously and a completely reckless tax cut program for which we are still paying, we damn near lost it all. Yes,, lest we forget, it was indeed the 2000 – 2008 administration that cost us our credit rating. Things which are important to the every day functioning of a country – schools, health care, infrastructure, transportation – all have been sorely and ,one might add, criminally neglected. By comparison, for instance, our rail system is of third world caliber in comparison to other nations. Calculated obstructionism, which began on the very night of the Presidential Inauguration in 2009, has destroyed any effort at progress and has won the day. We are once again on the verge of collapse in many dimensions of our nation’s capacity to move forward. A new agenda is critical. It is necessary. It is essential to our very survival. The GOP agenda, focused on destruction rather than construction, is most certainly not the one.