Questions for Campaigning Republican Legislators

Our diligent and thorough blogging friend, Gronda, wrote a post regarding answers to questions that Republican Party leadership provided GOP candidates. Most of the questions are of many of the messes the President finds himself in of his making, but truly miss the boat on where Republicans and the President have failed to address larger US and global issues.

There is plenty to ask about of these legislators. Here are a few of my questions:

– why are you allowing the easier maltreatment of our environment by industry?

– why are you supporting leaving the Paris Climate Change Accord ignoring the rest of the world?

– why have you failed to address our water concerns in Flint and similar places?

– why have you not only ignored our rapidly rising and expensive debt, but made it worse?

– why have you stood by and let the President trash and cut our diplomacy staff and bully our allies?

– why are we placing tariffs on everyone, without concern for past failures and ignoring better channels to address China involving our allies?

– why have you not listened to Americans and improve the ACA actually harming it instead?

– why have you not done anything to materially address gun governance?

– why have you allowed a President to trash our hard working people in important government departments to create an illusion of conspiracy to save his hind end?

– why have you tolerated a President who believes the civil rights of whites matter more than that of other races?

– why are we doing things to make our poverty problem worse, not better?

– why have we not addressed infrastructure with our significant needs and resulting job creation when interest rates were lower?

That is a start. These folks have a lot to answer to. To be frank, all Americans should be asking these questions, but if I were a young person, I would be even more alarmed. Just with climate change and growing debt, this party is screwing our youth.

But, there is so much more. I am an Independent voter who left the GOP over ten years ago because of their failure to speak to the truth on real problems – Trump has made it worse and his followers have been conned to believe the opposite.

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Question for gun owners

Since legislators are more concerned with keeping their jobs than doing their jobs, I felt the need to pose the issue on better gun governance to gun owners. Doing nothing is obviously not the answer, although that seems to be the course too many advocate. My newspaper was kind enough to print the following letter to the editor, with a few edits. Please feel free to adapt and use if you concur.

“After yet another mass shooting in America (this time in my home town), in addition to three shootings over two days in Charlotte, doing nothing to address this issue is not working. I believe we can still honor 2nd Amendment rights and enact better gun governance. I have shared with legislators the suggestions that have majority support in the country. My question is for gun owners – what do you suggest we do to govern the ownership of a device designed to kill? We govern car ownership to keep the driver, passengers and others safe. Surely we can add better governance to gun ownership.”

Since I wrote this, there was another shooting incident in Charlotte this morning at an elementary school. Fortunately no one was hurt. Our law enforcement do a highly credible job, but stopping gun violence is extremely difficult in America.

The death of an ego

“Gabriel, who is that banging at the gate?” asked Peter. After returning, Gabriel said “It’s some guy with a long tie and lots of hair. He wants to see you. He says he belongs here.”

Peter approaches the man and offers his assistance. “Let me in. I belong here not that other place. I was HUGE on earth. No one did as much good as me. Before me, everything was a disaster.”

Peter looks down at his history log and reads for a few minutes, then looks at the man and says, “No, you have been assigned correctly. Our logs are very precise and I don’t glean a very altruistic life here.”

“You must be reading the fake news. They always lied about me,” says the man. Peter responded, “Sir, this is heaven, we don’t have fake news here. We know more about you, than you know yourself.”

“I was the best President ever, a successful businessman, I appointed conservative judges and people loved me at my rallies. So, let me in,” he demanded.

“Sir, you need to calm down. You were almost removed from office and the economy went into a tailspin late in your first term, so you lost your reelection. You also gave the illusion of helping people, which is worse. But, that is besides the point. You lied far more than you did not, you treated people poorly if they disagreed with you, you sexually assaulted women, you were very unfaithful to your wives,  you sued hard-working people causing them financial hardship and you collected money for charity and then used it for your own purposes. No, you definitely have been assigned correctly.”

“But, but, they will be mean to me there,” said the man. “Sir, each person’s hell is designed to treat them how he treated others,” said Peter. “I wish I had better news for you. The truth hurts, sometimes.”

“This is not fair. You people must be Democrats. I want a recount. Where’s Rudy?” asked the man. “Sir, you won’t find Rudy here either.” counseled Peter.

Not a damn thing

What a surprise, yet another shooting in America. This one occurred in my home town at a place where I have visited. That disappoints me, but is irrelevant. It can happen anywhere in a America and the legislators will do what they tend to do – not a damn thing.

As I was learning of the Jacksonville Landing shooting, I saw three more stories about shootings where I live now. To witness the magnitude of the problem, just count the gun death stories in the news for a month. Gun deaths happen everyday and you know what will be done about them – not a damn thing.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different outcome. It could be said about continuing to do not a damn thing and expecting a different outcome. It is apparent doing little to nothing is not working. Shootings occur everywhere, but the numbers bear out the US is a far more dangerous place to be than the other top twenty-two nations in the world.

Gun deaths in America occur for many reasons – suicide leads the pack by far, but the reasons include incivility, immaturity, hate-crime, drug crime, accident, mental health, entertainment violence and alcohol. But, the constant in all of this is access to a gun. Guns do not kill people, people with access to guns kill people.

Until recently, with the kids and teens making an ongoing statement after the Parkland shooting, not much happened. Their efforts to speak out got the Florida legislature to act, but not much happened at the federal level. And, what Florda’s legislature did was a first step, but more is needed.

The kids get it. Too many adults in leadership positions are paid to do not a damn thing. We will hear many reasons over the next few days how a certain action will not prevent a certain shooting. That may be the specific case, but not doing a damn thing is obviously not working. We must act.

The NRA has spoken with its money and marketing efforts. I understand where they are coming from, although I disagree with them on a number of fronts. But, now let legislators go in a room with real data, law enforcement and behaviorial psychologists and come up with well-thought out solutions.

The first thing we must do is admit we have a problem. Easy access to guns is a problem. We govern driving a car, driving a  semi-truck, driving a boat, inspecting these vehicles, fishing, hunting, and marriage. We can at least govern the ownership of guns better than we are doing.

We need our legislators to do more than not a damn thing. If they do not, vote them out of office.

 

More candid observations

In keeping with the theme of my previous post, the following are some diplomatic candid observations:

– Help me understand why the people in the White House seem surprised that North Korea is not going to give up its nuclear weapons? I applaud their and the the South Korean’s effort and energy, but we seemed to be a little naive that Kim would cave.

– Saying something under oath in front of a judge who will sentence you carries a lot more gravitas than tweeting or saying something to a favorable interviewer. Under oath, Michael Cohen said he committed illicit acts at the direction of the candidate. I realize Cohen is not a Boy Scout, but his words under oath should carry some weight.

– A man of character died Saturday on what would have been my parents’ 67th anniversary. Senator John McCain was an imperfect man with whom I did not always agree, but he was very honorable public servant. Character and honor are two words that are not top of mind when I look to define a certain man in a US leadership position. I think it speaks volumes that McCain asked such a man to be excluded from attendance at his funeral.

– It is nigh impossible to stop bigoted thoughts or the teaching of children about bigotry. But, we must shine spotlights on behaviors that strip away at other people’s rights or promote one group’s rights over that of another. We must share our disagreement with hate speech. The easiest thing to do is vote with your feet and avoid people and places that enable bigoted thoughts. Confrontation is difficult, but listening, questioning and commenting can be done civilly with some. Or, it can take the form of openly applauding the efforts and successes of people who seem to be targeted with hate speech more than others.

– Finally, one’s reputation is the dearest thing we own. Rob Roy said your honor is a gift you give to yourself. This is why it is puzzling so many Republican legislators are spending their dear reputation supporting a man who daily brings dishonor to the Presidency and would throw them under the bus if needed. Please note my intentional avoidance of the use of “leader” in my descriptions.

We Americans and others around the world are craving an honorable leader. And, as said in the movie “The American President,” being President is entirely about character.

Candid observations

It is possible to be candid without condemning. To me, if you want someone to think about your observation, you need to season your candor with a measure of diplomacy. Here are a few random examples to ponder.

As a Christian, I try to follow the advice and deeds of Jesus. But, a thought for my more evangelical friends, it is highly unlikely Jesus looked like a WASP. He would look more like someone from Israel or Palestine.  In fact, if Jesus ventured from town to town in the US, he may not be welcomed with open arms in some places, just like it was when he did walk the earth.

When I see new discoveries of dinosaur fossils or a new hybrid human fossil as was the case during the week, I usually have an additional thought. The new hybrid human resulted from the seed of two different human strains and the fossil was noted to be about 90,000 years old. The dinosaur fossils are dated in the hundreds of millions and billions of years. So, help me understand how some religious education systems can waste kids time with instruction that dinosaurs walked the earth with humans and that the earth is less than 10,000 years old. If I was taught that and found out later what I learned could be scientifically proven wrong, would you fault me if I questioned most everything that school taught me?

Speaking of what we teach children, I am a firm believer that people are not born bigoted. They have to be carefully taught by their parents and family to hate certain groups of people. Or, if hate is too strong a word, they have to be taught that others are beneath them. I am reminded how the Nazi youth were taught Jews were animals and subhuman (they forgot to mention Jesus was a Jew). This enabled the Holocaust to happen. The same held true during the Jim Crow era in America and toward Native Americans before then. So, my observation is to question anyone (even a President) who uses animal names to define other human beings. “Help me understand why you would feel that way?” is a reasonable question. Or, you might say, “I am sorry but I do not feel that way.”

Returning to Jesus, we should pay more attention to his words and deeds rather than how he looked. Treating others like we want to be treated is key. And, that includes if they look unlike you or I do. We can pose questions that make others think about their positions.

What are your thoughts? Am I off base?

Green to go initiative in Durham, NC

Many sports fans know that Durham is the proud home to Duke University or the site of the cult sports and life lesson movie “Bull Durham” with Kevin Costner and Susan Sarandon. Some may know that Durham is one of the three cities that surround the Research Triangle Park which houses many global firms’ headquarters, marketing or research departments. But, it is now getting some good press for a grassroots initiative called “Green to Go.”

What is “Green to Go?” In short, it is a building partnership with 25 local restaurants to replace Styrofoam or plastic to-go or leftover containers with a reusable and durable plastic one. The idea is instead of throwing away a one-time product, it can be replaced by one that can be used for a 1,000 times. With islands of plastic in the ocean and spilling out of landfills, this is a much needed innovation.

How does it work? It requires a $25 membership, but let’s you check out a spill-proof container with your first order from one of the 25 participating restaurants. You simply return the cleaned container on your next order to any of the 25 participants and get a newly sanitized one. This is how the food inspectors are kept happy.

On the website link provided below, they have 507 subscribers and 1,522 measured uses of the containers. But, this is a replicable idea that will likely catch on with more notoriety. The website includes the PBS Newshour piece that I first became aware of their efforts. Please let others know about this and check it our for yourself.

https://durhamgreentogo.com/

The unlearned lesson

Institutions have a bad habit of not learning lessons. The unlearned lessons may even be from their own history, yet they go unlearned or unheeded. Examples continue to pile-up like a stack of unread reports or emails.

To compile just a short list of such examples, consider the following organizations and what each failed to learn: the Catholic Church, Toyota, VW, Wells Fargo, Penn State University, Michigan State University, The Ohio State University, Congress and the current President just to name a few.

The Catholic Church has known about a significant problem for many decades with pedophile priests. Yet, protecting the institution was the first motivation, not stopping the abuse of children. Even after major scandals occurred in Boston and Ireland, signicant change did not occur to prevent future molestations.

The unlearned lesson is you focus on the abused as you fix the problem, not protecting the institution. When you address the problem openly and painfully, that is how you protect the institution. Cover-ups eventually fail, because the truth has a way of getting out.

Penn State, Michigan State and Ohio State are major universities and sports marketing franchises. Leaders within Penn State and Michigan State have known for years that there was a sexual predator in their midst. Yet, they chose not to act, trying to hide it from the public. As a result, more young boys, girls and teens were molested. By not addressing the problem, they brought appropriate shame to their marketing brands.

Ohio State has a similar issue with a physician who worked with the wrestlers. It has been known for years by athletes and coaches to avoid this doctor due to his practice of checking for testicular cancer for any visit, such as the flu, cold, fever, etc. Yet, nothing was done until several men came forward about their experiences.

For-profit companies are notoriously protective of their brands, but the better solution is to come clean and remedy the problem. Toyota was very slow on their floor rug braking problem. VW purposefully cheated emissions tests and were very slow to fess up after discovery. Many car companies who used Takata air bags also were slow to reveal a massive and deadly problem.

But, it is not just car companies. Banks and financial entities have experienced issues with aggressive and even illegal sales practices. Wells Fargo has justifiably gotten a lot of press for setting up false accounts as staff tried to keep jobs and earn bonuses. Bank of America and American Express have been fined for selling products and services that people did not request or need. And, pay-day lenders have a business model of excessive usury.

Even our governments have a hard time learning lessons. When the incumbent dishonors the office, the institution must penalize the incumbent. It matters not what party the incumbent belongs to. This applies to local, state and federal levels of government. It must apply to Congress and the White House. The punishment can vary from formal rebuke to censoring to removal from committees or from office.

Trust in institutions has waned. Some of this mistrust is due to hyperbole, such as what the current President has done to protect himself, but much is due to institutions not dealing with problems openly and appropriately. It also is due to them being more concerned with image than substance.

On this latter point, another unlearned lesson is the best way to keep your job is to do your job. And, when others don’t and/ or harm people, the institutions should fix the problem and let people know that they have. It is the right thing to do and avoids covering up and abetting criminality.

Senator Joe McCarthy, Donald Trump and Richard Nixon

What do the above three people have in common? It is more than one might think. The two deceased members are being invoked about the living one’s actions. There is ample reason for that, but there is even more commonality.

Senator Joe McCarthy ran roughshod over America playing on people’s fears during the Communist witch hunts. It took the efforts of Joseph Welch, the legal counsel to the Army, who uttered this plea under oath to the Senator, “Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” It also took the considerable reporting from an honorable man Edward R. Murrow, who highlighted McCarthy’s fearmongering.

President Richard Nixon resigned as President before he was impeached and convicted. In essence, he ran a burglary ring from the White House and went to great lengths to cover it up. What did Nixon in was his paranoia. He wanted the dirt the Democrats had on him for the 1972 election, so he authorized a burglary of the headquarters at the Watergate hotel and office complex. Plus, he paranoidly taped every conversation in the oval office, which was his Waterloo.

The current President is being investigated for any links to colluding with Russian agents to win the election. Yet, like Nixon, he is condemning the actions as a witch hunt and may be guilty of obstruction of justice, which was item 1 on the Nixon impeachment paperwork in Congress. It should be noted that Michael Cohen’s eight guilty pleas and Paul Manafort’s eight guilty verdicts bring the total Mueller convictions to seven people – that does not seem like a witch hunt to me.

Yet, there is even more in common than misuse of power, fear-mongering and paranoia. A key advisor to Donald Trump early in his career was an attorney named Roy Cohn. Cohn told Trump two key pieces of advice – never admit a mistake and sue everyone – which Trump follows to this day. But, Cohn also served as an advisor to none other than Senator Joe McCarthy during the Communist witch hunts. What other advice did Cohn share with Trump?

But, it does not end there. As a Congressman, Nixon also participated on the House Un-American Activities Committee, which was heavily influenced by Senator McCarthy. So, Nixon adds his name to another one of America’s biggest black eyes.

My point is should Trump be found guilty of obstruction of justice and collusion with the Russians, these three men would join together, with a link of Roy Cohn, to three of the worst misuses of power in American history. And, all three are associated with “enemies lists.” Talk about fear-mongering.

Ironically, a key characteristic of a narcissist is to echo back criticism he is getting, so Trump is calling Mueller’s investigation akin to McCarthyism and has referenced White House Counsel John Dean who testified against Nixon as a “rat.” Dean actually found his conscience and is viewed as somewhat of a hero. As Trump has done before, he is trying to paint others with his own justifiable criticism. To me, the fact all three men kept enemies list is telling by itself.

So, the names of McCarthy, Nixon and Trump will live on infamy. And, they should.

We should listen to rational experienced voices

In 2002, Jim Webb penned an op-ed in The Washington Post cautioning the US about going into Iraq. Who is Jim Webb? He is a former Marine, Secretary of the Navy and US Senator from Virginia. He has a law degree from Georgetown and has been a member of both political parties serving under multiple Presidents.

Two paragraphs from his pre-invasion op-ed piece are telling:

“The first reality is that wars often have unintended consequences — ask the Germans, who in World War I were convinced that they would defeat the French in exactly 42 days. The second is that a long-term occupation of Iraq would beyond doubt require an adjustment of force levels elsewhere, and could eventually diminish American influence in other parts of the world….

Other than the flippant criticisms of our ‘failure’ to take Baghdad during the Persian Gulf War, one sees little discussion of an occupation of Iraq, but it is the key element of the current debate. The issue before us is not simply whether the United States should end the regime of Saddam Hussein, but whether we as a nation are prepared to physically occupy territory in the Middle East for the next 30 to 50 years.”

It should be noted we have been in Iraq for  over fifteen years. Maybe, the chest beaters should listen to those who have fought and have experience rather than people who understand less what fighting and occupying a country mean.This was a crossroad moment in our history and we have not been the same since. Many thousands of American and allied troops died, even more Iraqi troops and civilians died, our reputation has suffered and our debt is much higher. Plus, he was right on the money about American influence being impacted around the globe. Lying to allies and others about weapons of mass destruction has that kind of effect, not to mention misunderstanding the landscape.

Right now, almost 200 former military and intelligence officers have penned letters being critical of the US President’s decision to withdraw security clearance of former CIA Director John Brennan. This follows earlier criticism of the same President on his siding with Russia over his intelligence officials or not heeding the advice of his more experienced folks.

Call me crazy, but maybe we should listen to the more rational and experienced voices? They may be telling us something we need to hear. We owe it to Amercans fighting for our county to take the time to get it right.