Congressional Reform

Those who break it can never fix it. Is that a given?

I’m going to point you to this opinion piece by the CATO organization. It makes the case, far better than I can, about the need for a paradigm shift in returning Congress to its roots.

Congressional reformation cannot be accomplished by the Republican Party or the Democrat Party. They are embedded in the process and they are enablers of putting power into the Presidency, not curtailing it.

They are enablers of Judicial power, too. By failing to perform their role in crafting legislation and interpretation, they gift the power of interpretation to the Supreme Court.

Take a moment to read this and reflect on the boundaries each branch of the government should have. Then reflect on how the US government should evolve beyond the partisanship that exists and how more control is needed over the power of the federal government.

https://www.cato.org/commentary/its-time-make-congress-great-again#

Reparation Silliness

I once called for an amendment to the Constitution. We would avoid silliness

https://wordpress.com/post/reasonablecitizen.wordpress.com/5980

Amendment 33: The people of the United States hereby declare that the seeking of reparations shall not be approved for events or conditions that were not illegal in the time period in which they occurred, when a period of 100 years has passed since that event or condition.

If only the government was under my control.

Here’s the next piece of Democrat silliness to hit us.: revoking medals from a hundred years ago.

https://www.businessinsider.com/lawmakers-ask-biden-revoke-medals-wounded-knee-massacre-warren-sanders-2021-11

Student Loan Forgiveness Yikes or not?

“Biden argues that the government shouldn’t forgive debt for people who went to “Harvard and Yale and Penn” — and he’s also indicated that he believes Congress should make changes through legislation, which would make them harder to undo.”

Well, President Biden and I agree on that point.

In my view if you are smart enough to go to college then you are smart enough to pay your debts. Even if you dropped out.

Biden wants a limitation of $10,000 and the uber-liberals like Sanders, Warren, and Schumer want to make it $50,000! Yikes! What is wrong with them? This sucking up to the college vote, well, it just sucks!

I wish this buying of American votes would go away but it is not likely to happen.

And in any event, isn’t this loan forgiveness simply a way to replace the money that banks loaned out and are now at risk of default?

The latest student loan debt statistics for 2020 show how serious the student loan debt crisis has become for borrowers across all demographics and age groups. There are 45 million borrowers who collectively owe nearly $1.6 trillion in student loan debt in the U.S. Student loan debt is now the second highest consumer debt category – behind only mortgage debt – and higher than both credit cards and auto loans. The average student loan debt for members of the Class of 2018 is $29,200, a 2% increase from the prior year, according to the Institute for College Access and Success.

That’s a lot of moolah coolah.

Send a note to all your congressman to stop college loan forgiveness.

Treasonous Behavior

President Trump is crossing over the line between treasonous behavior and honest criticism of governmental processes. It’s time to impeach him again, before he leaves office on January 20th.

He has made false and fraudulent allegations about the Department of Justice, the FBI, the election processes in 6 different US states, and his own cabinet appointees. He continues to sow distrust of the American government and the election process and any one who speaks the truth to his power. This is undermining faith in the American processes without evidence of fraud. In one case, a Republican attorney wants his own vote thrown out with several thousands of other votes simply because he cast an absentee ballot.

The people supporting Trump and his campaign are issuing slanderous, libelous messages and one of Trump’s lawyers has even called for the torture and execution of a fired government employee with nothing more than the employee disagreed with President Trump. This is an OUTRAGE and the President should disavow this person and fire him immediately. Execution seems extreme even for the person calling for it.

All of these things are in the news cycle right now but if you would like a link, let me know, I will be happy to forward it to you.

Amended at 1:18 PM Central Time:

On Tuesday afternoon, the Trump Lawyer said the following: “For anyone listening to the Howie Carr Show, it was obvious that my remarks were sarcastic and made in jest,” he said. “I, of course, wish Mr. Krebs no harm. This was hyperbole during political discourse.”

I’m guessing this is a kind of apology but I really want to know what other kinds of things the lawyer considers hyperbole in political discourse.

I believe black people now

I was a skeptic for the longest time. I never believed that white men over 40 were THE problem in America. Now I am inclined to believe it.

I wasn’t a problem. I did not hate nor was I racially prejudiced. I was careful not to offend. I tried to treat people with respect. If I failed, no one ever told me.

I was a mediocre white guy who was focused on making something of my life. I got lucky along the way and here I am now.

Do you know the name Jack Weinberg? He is the originator of the phrase, “Don’t trust anyone over thirty.” His life should be made into a movie. Look him up.

I want to change his phrase to say “Don’t trust white men over forty in politics.”

I believe black people who say old white men are the problem. I believe women who say old white men are the problem. I believe the millennials who say old white men are the problem.

President Donald Trump and the Grand Old Party of Republicans have convinced me. Mitch McConnell has convinced me, COVID has convinced me, and every black person beaten by a police man has convinced me.

When the President of the United States tries to overthrow the vote count in the US by saying some cloudy group of somebodies has rigged the election in America, he’s an old white man trying to invalidate the votes of Democrats so he can win office. When his supporters tell lie after lie about the vote count, they are all old white men who are trying to save the Republican President for a second term.

When the Republican Party thinks that laissez-faire public health policy is the best way to go, they are mistaken even in the face of data that says otherwise. They are old white men who want other people to suffer instead of thriving. They want big box stores to thrive and hometown business to go away.

When the riots of 2020 for police brutality and police violence are EXACTLY like they were in the 1960s, I believe white men over 40 have not changed since the 1960s.

When the old white men of the Republican Party implement voter suppression, I want to gag. They don’t support the America I want in my grandchildren’s future.

Shall we talk about the old white men in the Democrat Party? Chuck Schumer? Joe Biden? Tom Perez and Stony Heyer? Maybe a better class of people but their collective intelligence is not all that great. This is the group that forced upon us $5 light bulbs and said we couldn’t sell old babycribs. This is the group that continues to give things to crybabies and even talks about paying people today for the social crimes of a century ago. Reparations, my butt. This is the group that has one solution for everyone AND insists that Equality is FAIR. One size does not fit everyone. They are incredibly racial but not racist. If they had their way they would have representation in Congress by race and gender, and not by political boundaries with state sovereignty.

The only thing renewable supported by old white men in politics is their gerrymandered districts. Sheesh. Renewable election results.

Sustainable re-elections. Generational wealth and generational seats in politics.

The ignorance of white men over 40 and the lust to control the power of their positions is beyond comprehension.

I don’t know if women will be different. I don’t know if blacks will be different. But I want to find out.

I believe black people now.

Damn the Infirm and the Elderly! No Mask Mandates Allowed!

Once again, Wisconsin Republican leadership doesn’t give a Shinola that the elderly and the infirm may die from COVID-19. Determined to preserve the personal liberty of not wearing masks at somebody else’s expense, Wisconsin Republicans continue a let-them-eat-cake attitude regarding compromised immune systems and susceptible citizens during a pandemic.

They are banking on the fact that there will not be enough deaths in Wisconsin before November 3rd to impact their election chances. Does that sound harsh? Well, maybe. Forcing herd immunity through inaction seems pretty harsh to me, too.

Evers Extends Mask Mandate for 60 More Days as State Sees Record Number of COVID-19 Hospitalizations

MAGA Mission a Failure

In 2015, Donald Trump announced he was going to Make America Great Again. In his speech at Trump Tower, The Donald outlined his plan. Here it is:

Below is Donald Trump’s formula — 19 points in all — to make America great again, as culled from his Tuesday remarks.

• Sell junk to Saudi Arabia, since the goods we send them are blown up anyway;
• Repeal Obamacare “and replace it with something that benefits everybody”;
• “Turn off that spigot” of sending money to China (in the form of debt payments) by taxing them “until they behave properly”;
• Renegotiate our foreign trade deals;
• Call up the head of the Ford Motor Company and tell them they are going to be taxed at 35 percent for every car coming from Mexico until they decide to nix their plant in Mexico City;
• End President Barack Obama’s executive actions on immigration;
• End border crossings from Mexico because some of those border-crossers are “rapists”;
• To do that, build a “great, great wall” on the U.S.-Mexico border;
• Have Mexico pay for that wall;
• Don’t appoint a secretary of state who rides bikes and breaks his leg;
• Avoid riding bikes himself;
• Work hard on the Islamic State problem;
• Stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons;
• Find the General Patton or General MacArthur from within the U.S. armed forces to “make it really work” in the Middle East;
• Rebuild the country’s infrastructure — “nobody can do that like me”;
• Create jobs — “I will be the greatest jobs president that God ever created”;
• Save Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security “without cuts”;
• Protect the Second Amendment;
• Take the brand of the United States “and make it great again.”

I conclude the MAGA Mission has failed. But let’s give this President his due. He did accomplish items # 4, 10, and 11 but I think it isn’t enough to compensate for the other items he failed to accomplish.

Perhaps his slogan in 202o should be MAMA.

Make America Mediocre Again.

He seems to be doing quite well at that.

StayAtHome: Emails with Wisconsin Rep

Four weeks ago I sent my State Representative and my State Senator an email protesting the extension of the Wisconsin StayatHome Order. My State Representative is a good man whom I’ve met several times and he replied promptly. I haven’t yet heard from my State Senator.

The next few postings are about the content of those emails.

Email #1:

With respect, Representative XXXXX

Why is Wisconsin shuttering ALL of its citizens for another month?

One size does not fit all. What is good for Milwaukee County (with a population density of 3,800 people per square mile) does not work for Barron County (with a population density of 52 people per square mile).

If you live in Barron County, you are already shuttered in place.

Can we get a break, please?  After four months of an invasive pathogen, our county has had 6 cases of confirmed COVID-19. Zero deaths. We have already flattened the curve by living here.

Look, we have to learn how to live with this disease. It will be around for three more years minimum. Here’s what should be talked about:

a) Counties with less than 100 people per square mile and a low infection and death rate should have a much more open lifestyle. The more people per square mile, the more restrictions should be in place.

b) every building the public enters should have a sanitation station and signage that says all who enter must sanitize. Same as when they leave.

c) every building the public enters should have a posted “public area sanitation plan” for people entering to decide if that plan is sufficient for their safety.

d) Face masks should be required by anyone, everyone, within 50 feet of a building that the public enters. If you are in the woods or parks or outdoors jogging, no face masks are required if you are with family members. If you are in the same places with strangers, then face masks are required.

e) If a person wears a mask and gloves, no social distancing requirements are required but they are encouraged.

f)  Protect all nursing homes and places where healthcare workers are present. Everyone wears PPE ( gloves, masks, disposable garbs), a sanitation plan is posted, a screening process is utilized for those who wish to enter.

g) Workplaces: sanitation plans are required. Masks and gloves and sanitizing stations available for employees and may be required PPE by management.

h) Counties with more than 500 people per square mile and a high infection rate should have shuttered-in policies for non-work hours. Counties with more than a thousand people per square mile should have 24-hour shuttered-in policies.

i) Meetings and gatherings of non-family and non-colleagues: Sanitization stations, sanitization plans, masks, gloves, and in some cases garb.

j) Neighbors and children playtime: Give some guidance on this, please. Sticky kids (snotty, dripping, drooling, leaking) cannot play outside. All kids come in and change clothes and wash up before roaming the house. Home sanitization plans make a lot of sense. Why not develop them?

The issue isn’t to prevent any possible case of spreading the virus, the issue is to reduce the likelihood of spreading the disease while living a normal lifestyle.

Tell the rest of the legislature to start treating people like adults. Give us the plan, give us alternatives, and get the heck out of the way so we can live our lives in peace and freedom.

Protect the elderly and the immune-compromised. Why is that so hard to do?

Let’s get people back to a somewhat normal lifestyle. You and your legislative friends can move mountains, can you also make some plans to live with this disease until there is a cure and a vaccine?

Who thinks for the President?

Who is the President’s brain?  Is it Jared Kushner? Senior advisor to the President?

It is prima facie this President is no genius. So then who is the architect that is making these maneuvers to align EVERY POSSIBLE EXECUTIVE BRANCH OFFICIAL as a Trump loyalist?

Does this President fear all independent thinkers?

Is this all Jared Kushner? Will he overthrow the President at the right time this year and take over the United States government in a previously-unthinkable coup?

So all of a sudden with less than 7 months to an election, the President tosses out all inspector generals to put his own minions into place.

Is the President merely the circus barker who gets everyone’s attention while the carny operators prepare to fleece the public at large?

Atkinson’s firing is part of a larger shakeup in the intelligence community. Maguire, the former acting Director of National Intelligence, was also removed by Trump and replaced by a Trump loyalist, Richard Grenell.

The intelligence community, which Trump has always viewed with skepticism, has been in turmoil amid the constant turnover. Atkinson is at least the seventh intelligence official to be fired, ousted or moved aside since last summer.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which was created to improve coordination of the nation’s 17 intelligence agencies after 9/11, has been in upheaval since former director Dan Coats, who had a fraught relationship with Trump, announced in July 2019 that he was stepping down.

Trump nominated Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, to replace Coats, but his selection drew sharp criticism from Democrats and a lukewarm response from some Republicans because of his lack of experience.

Trump withdrew Ratcliffe’s name from consideration shortly after he was nominated, but then re-nominated him again in February. The Senate has yet to move on the nomination.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-fires-intelligence-watchdog-who-had-key-role-in-ukraine-complaint/ar-BB129a2a?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=mailsignout

And Jared Kushner said this recently:

Kushner on Thursday evening offered a novel argument about the national stockpile. He said some states still had stockpiles that they hadn’t been employing for the coronavirus outbreak and that localities should go to them first. And then he suggested that the national stockpile wasn’t even meant for them.

“And the notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile,” Kushner said. “It’s not supposed to be the states’ stockpiles that they then use.”

When the federal government says the stockpile is THEIR’s and not OUR’s. They have broken the bond with the State’s and the People they represent.

 

 

 

Texas Draws a Line…

Currently here’s the governors order for Texas – Air-travel from Coronavirus hot spots is also targeted by a new Texas executive order. Passengers landing in Texas from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, California, Louisiana, and Washington will be required to participate in a 2-week quarantine. Also included, flights from the cities of Chicago, Miami, Detroit, and Atlanta.

How’s that going to work? Good question.

Troopers encountering out-of-state license plates (or other un-Texas indicators) may stop and inform passengers/people they must self-quarantine for fourteen days. The troopers are collecting the addresses of where people will quarantine and troopers may stop in to check up to ensure they are in quarantine.

There will be more of this going forward. Travel across the US might become uncomfortable as a patch work of state laws may inhibit the freedom to travel.

This will become very complex in state border cities like Kansas City, Cincinnati, and others in which you work in one state and live in another.

Welcome to Zero Tolerance for travelers, too!