PatrickforB
PatrickforB's JournalAfter watching the Republican debate, I'm floored the Democrats aren't starting their debates.
So, I have an idea:
Why don't we all begin calling Debbie Wasserman Schultz's office AT LEAST ONCE EVERY DAY until debate dates are moved forward. October 13th is too late.
Her number is 202-225-7931, and I bet if 50 or 60 thousand people called every day, the debates would get scheduled.
What do you think?
An open letter to CO Sen. Michael Bennet on his support of TPP
Last week, you sent me an impassioned plea for a donation because you are anticipating lots of money coming in from out of state organizations to support your Republican opponent in 2016, whomever that might be.
While this may be true, I cannot in good conscience give you a dime, since you voted to fast track the Trans Pacific Partnership. This odious ‘free trade’ agreement has been kept secret from the American people, and Senators have not even been allowed copies of it or even to take notes. Here in Colorado, we call that a pig in a poke and know that only suckers buy something they haven’t seen and examined.
So, here’s the deal Michael: unless you reverse your position on the TPP, actively and publicly oppose it, what you can count on is that I will be working with other Democrats in Colorado to find a candidate that will represent my interests in the U.S. Senate better than you have, and ‘primary’ you from the left. Because honestly, Michael, I’m TIRED of having the people I elect to supposedly represent my interests get to Washington and instead uphold the interests of big corporations. Make no mistake, Michael, what is good for these corporations is not necessarily good for the people you represent, and TPP is most assuredly NOT good for the people of Colorado.
So, Michael, no matter how much money you think you’ll lose from corporate donors if you don’t support TPP, you stand to lose much more if you continue to ignore the interests of those who elected you.
Lastly, Udall lost in 2014 because he ran such a lame campaign that no one really knew what he stood for. He didn’t really take any positions at all, and the result was that Democrats didn’t turn out, and Colorado’s large independent electorate voted for Gardner instead. Make no mistake, it wasn’t the Koch brothers and their insidious super PACs that led to Udall’s defeat, it was Udall’s seeming refusal to take any definitive positions on anything. Don’t count on having people turn out for you, Michael, just because you’re a Democrat, because it doesn’t work that way. You have to ACT like a Democrat.
Sincerely...
Bernie Sanders and minorities
I've been thinking about this meme that is going out there about how Bernie Sanders really doesn't have a lot of 'name recognition' minorities. According to this meme, this means that he's somehow 'not going to get' the minority vote.
There are two points here I'd like to make:
1. I know and work with quite a few people who happen to be racial or ethnic minorities. What I'm noticing, just in my own little neck of the woods (Denver metro area in Colorado) is that many of these folks like and are talking about Bernie. Seems like they haven't heard this meme about Bernie not 'reaching' minorities...
Which brings us to my second point:
2. It seems to me to do a disservice to people who happen to be racial and/or ethnic minorities to imply that somehow they aren't going to 'hear' Bernie Sanders' message. I very much don't think this is true because we cannot treat the voting populace as consisting of somehow monolithic segments. People like Bernie's message and when they look at his record they see he's been about social and economic justice for half a century...consistently!
Just my opinion, but the bottom line here is that we'll have a hotly contested Democratic primary and Americans are going to listen to the candidates and then make their decision. I'm thinking Bernie will surprise a lot of pundits and will (happily for us) HORRIFY Wall Street and the big capitalists. AND, in the general I think he will capture a lot of independent votes.
People are fed up with the status quo, and Bernie's got a really compelling message. Call me Don Quixote and accuse me of 'tilting at windmills' but I think the guy can win! In fact, I'm so sure of it I'm donating to him regularly and when the time comes will help his campaign here in Colorado.
TIRED of being nickel and dimed.
My wife and I have Comcast. We pay for the full subscription to all the premium and network channels as well as internet and land line. When I think about how much we pay, it makes the little hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, because it is over $2,500/yr. We also have Netflix streaming so my wife can have immediate access to anything she wants to watch, ever.
Now, imagine my dismay when she called up an NBC show, Hannibal, and NBC was trying to charge us $2.99 per episode ON TOP of the usurious amount I already pay Comcast.
I called up Comcast to complain, and was told that yes, NBC, CBS and Fox all have decided to charge fees for shows after the week or so they put it out for 'free' on Comcast. Comcast, in spite of the fact that I have a SUBSCRIPTION to their premium package chooses to pass on any extra cost from these networks, who already insert roughly 25 minutes of commercials in one hour of programming.
So, I went on the NBC site and complained, but I have only just begun. I will be writing the corporate offices of each of these firms and voicing my discontent with the idea that I will just quit Comcast if the issue isn't resolved. In addition, I will pay for ONE episode of Hannibal and then write the corporate offices of every company that has advertised during the show and tell THEM of my discontent. Because I think it's time I quit being an obedient consumer and began pushing back.
Yes, I am aware that in this neoliberal capitalist utopia, the shareholder has primacy over both the customers and the workers, but I'm TIRED of it. So I'm pushing back using the strategy of hitting them in the pocketbook. Yeah, I'm one guy, but if 500 or 5,000 people start doing this maybe we can fight this price creep.
Aren't you SICK of always having to pay MORE for LESS?
Headline from the New Jersey Star Ledger: Like it or not, Sanders' socialism is mainstream
Apparently socialism isn't such a bad word anymore. Here's a couple of paragraphs from this June 15 editorial:
On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), said that "in virtually every instance, what I'm saying is supported by a significant majority of the American people," which is a bold claim for someone who has been broadly labeled a "socialist" candidate in Democratic camouflage.
But it makes this a good time to consider whether that term is being applied accurately in the early innings of this 2016 campaign, rather than as a pejorative to dismiss Sanders' ideas.
Because so far, the Senator is showing the electorate that a rejection of this "socialism" – the concept, not the brainless epithet – is something that most voters would probably find unthinkable.
<snip>
There! Isn't that fun? You can read more at http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/06/like_it_or_not_sanders_socialism_is_mainstream_edi.html
I've always been amused at how we are supposed to gasp and shudder when someone gets accused of being a socialist. Now we're watching the mainstream media struggle unsuccessfully to ignore Bernie because, well (gasp) he is a socialist (shudder!) but people are flocking to his events because his views are MAIN STREAM.
Homeless man, pinned down by LAPD officers, shot and killed
Source: Daily Kos
From the LA Times:
...a dramatic confrontation caught on video, Los Angeles police shot and killed a homeless man in the heart of downtown's bustling skid row Sunday...
Witnesses at the scene identified the victim by his street name, “Africa”, and gave conflicting accounts of what they saw...
An area resident, who identified himself as Booker T. Washington, said police had come by repeatedly to ask Africa to take down his tent. People are allowed to sleep on the streets from 9 p.m to 6 a.m., but they are supposed to remove their tents in the daytime, under a court agreement.
“This man got shot over a tent,” Washington said.
Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/02/1367900/-Homeless-Man-Pinned-Down-by-LAPD-Officers-Shot-and-Killed#comments
When I had some financial problems a few years ago, I discovered first hand that America is a 'kick 'em while they're down' kind of place. Now, it seems to have become a 'shoot 'em while they're down' place. This video blew me away because they had the homeless guy pinned down and immobile, and all of a sudden, one of the cops, who still was pointing his gun at the prone guy, let off at least two shots point blank.
Geez.
Does this sound familiar?
"To be weak is miserable, doing or suffering, but of this be sure, to do aught good never will be our task; but ever to do ill our sole delight: and being the contrary to his high will whom we resist. If then his providence out of evil seek to bring forth good, our labor must be to pervert that end, and out of good still to find means of evil, which oft times may succeed, so as perhaps shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb his inmost councils from their destined aim."
This is a quote from John Milton's Paradise Lost, one of my all time favorite books, but it could as well have come from Karl Rove or Dick Cheney.
Basically, Milton's point is that Satan traded the essence of being, the reality, for the illusion of idols of his own creation. So he traded heaven for hell but felt it was better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. Seems like the Republicans, conservatives in general, have made this mistake, and that this mistake has been hastened by the profit-myopia of capitalism.
So now we have Gov. Pence signing that hateful discrimination law, and the guy in Kansas who wants to forbid people getting food stamps (SNAP) to purchase steak or seafood. I mean, think about it. These people seem to create their own reality based on hate, mistrust, anger and envy. The great Jimmy Carter said it all though, when he said, ""If you don't want your tax dollars to help the poor, then stop saying that you want a country based on Christian values. Because you don't!"
Why the constant, unrelenting hatred? Why do these people have to oppose ANYTHING that can help everyday people? Because they've been doing it for centuries. Think about how adamantly opposed to the New Deal conservatives are. Why? The best times this nation ever had were when the New Deal and labor unions were strong. Now what do we have to show for 35 years of Neocon and Neolib policies? Not much, eh?
The phenomenon that cannot be spoken; salt water intrusion moves inland in south Florida
The Daily Kos has a really good read, accompanied by a video that tells of the current effects of sea level rise in south Florida caused by climate change.
Except that they can't SAY that. So they call it salt water intrusion. Check out the link here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/03/19/1372031/-The-phenomenon-that-can-not-be-spoken-in-Florida-continues-as-salt-water-intrusion-moves-inland?detail
They even talk about how someone SLIPPED UP and said the words 'climate change.'
Pretty sick.
Falling oil prices and fracking
Paul Krugman has written an editorial posted on Truthout. Basically, he says that falling oil prices might render some fracking operations less-than-feasible economically. The 'drill baby, drill' mentality that has seemed to rule our domestic oil production was made possible by horizontal drilling combined with fracking; when oil prices are high, it is economically (though not environmentally) feasible to frack in order to extract oil from shale beds. The so called 'patriots' told us that it would be good for the United States to have all this fracking because they reasoned that if lots more oil is produced here, we won't have to import as much. However, we all know the oil companies sell this oil to the highest bidder, so the only real bottom line impact is to increase profits for oil companies. Same for the fracking process; these same 'patriots' tell us fracking is good for us, but if you think it through, it is only good for increasing profits for oil companies. At BEST, it is neutral for us, unless, of course the fracking fluid is spilled or leaks into the water table. Then it's not so good for anyone.
But now, oil prices have gone down. Krugman is saying that as this happens, more and more fracking operations will be too costly to break even for the oil companies, so they will stop in these cases until the price per barrel rises again. He says it may contract the economy when these operations are put on hold. He doesn't say the word 'recession,' but in my state of Colorado, our economy could slow down because of it.
Since we now have higher carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere than we have ever had, and we're getting alarming climate reports from all over the world, now would be the time to be way more aggressive in trying to convert us to much higher percentages of energy coming from renewables. In spite of what Alison Lundergen Grimes said while pandering to the coal industry in KY, coal is certainly NOT the way to go. There is no 'clean' coal.
So do you guys think we'll actually have the wisdom and fortitude to lead the world in converting to renewable power sources? The political will?
LOL. Nah. But here's Krugman's article, which is his first take on the oil price plunge.
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/28028-oil-prices-the-impact-of-the-plunge
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