Republicans in the US Congress

Republicans in the US Congress have abandoned their oath of office and loyalty to the US Constitution in support of a clearly corrupt, Republican, US President.

The Republicans in congress are complicit, accessories after the fact, in helping cover up Russian meddling in the 2016 elections; publicly encouraged by, then candidate, Donald Trump. Attention to Russian election activity is being distracted with conspiracy, disproved, nonsense about Ukrainian meddling in said elections.

45 is, by pushing the false Ukrainian conspiracy, clearing the way for the Russians to interfere with the US elections of 2020. By supporting the president in this false narrative, and helping the Russians be in a position to do it again, the Republicans in the US Congress are aiding and abetting treason.

Moscow Mitch McConnell has held up legislation passed by the US House of Representatives, including bills that would help secure the elections in 2020, and is therefore complicit in treason, above and beyond the treason being committed by the other Republicans in the US House and Senate.

Democrats and the economy

If you are voting for your own economic self interest, you are voting for the Democrats. This point is highlighted by two magazines not known for supporting a Democrat's perspective. They also reinforce the main assertion (Democrats are better for our economy) of the book: Bulls, Bears and the Ballot Box: How the Performance of Our Presidents Has Impacted Your Wallet; by Bob Deitrick and Lew Goldfarb.

www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2012/10/10/want-a-better-economy-history-says-vote-democrat/?fbclid=IwAR0i8nzXekYwplu8dYBqvf1604bN7K0MS4cFXIDWcYmvz9Yrqq7Do9nMCPM#735d9a4dcb44

https://www.wsj.com/graphics/red-economy-blue-economy/?mod=e2fb&fbclid=IwAR0Bc0fWIf_vlvP8oW7QIjn9kJyqJcyegC82wDStywM1w0o-x30cC2akGjw

These are the facts! You don't need to believe 'em, because they're facts.

Facts need not be believed, and beliefs require no facts.

Why run Mr. Bloomberg?

Michael Bloomberg, a multi-billionaire, is back in the race for President because the plutocrats he represents, multi-millionaires and billionaires (less than 1% of the nation's population), are scared out of their bank books by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

No matter what Warren and Sanders represent, or do, these plutocrats (aristocrat wannabes) will still be fantastically wealthy. The plutocrats are terrified of being asked to maintain (possibly improve) the great nation that allowed them to build, or keep (inherited), wealth. The country that they were all born into... The USA that was built by all of our parents, grand parents, great grand parents, etc...

Health care information

Health care info... Comparing costs and results around the world. Spoiler: the USA has the highest, by far, costs and is well down the list of good results in every category.

https://www.pgpf.org/blog/2019/07/how-does-the-us-healthcare-system-compare-to-other-countries

People who argue against Single Payer/Medicare for All are those folks who are going to lose some of their profit margins and salaries... They'll still make lots of money, just not as much as they do now.

Carbon Taxes Explained

Carbon Taxes made simple, if not easy.


Atmospheric carbon comes largely from using carbon based chemistry extracted from where it had been sequestered in the Earth; oil and gas extraction mostly.  Sufficient fuel taxes, paid when fuel, or other hydrocarbon based product (e.g., plastic), is purchased (wholesale and/or retail), is the carbon tax; discourages excessive consumption.  


In addition, agriculture can deplete or restore carbon to the soil.  Industrial agriculture largely depletes carbon in the soil, whereas regenerative agriculture (sustainable methodologies) restores carbon to the soil.  Core samples of soil, in areas where agriculture is practiced, can determine which is happening in any given location.  Depletion results in a carbon consumption tax, restoration a credit/payment.


Some things are not as complex as we've been led to believe...

Homelessness in the USA

Many people are complaining about folks who are homeless; living directly on the street or in tents pitched in public spaces. The reasons for the homelessness and the solutions are also complained about, if discussed at all.

The cost of living indoors started to skyrocket in the 1980s, and that problem will only be addressed by providing sufficient quantities of seriously affordable housing. The cost and vulnerability of home loans can only be mitigated by re-instituting, and enforcing, fair and equitable regulations for mortgages.

There have always been homeless folks, a few who refuse housing assistance because they believe they are living the life they prefer, The current increase in homelessness started in the 1980s when most of the regulatory environment for home mortgages, that was the Glass-Steagall Act, was repealed. Another reason for an increase in homeless folks was the abandonment of the government housing for folks with debilitating disabilities; many of the institutions involved were found to be seriously deficient and were closed rather than improved.

The business of home loans was taken from the reliable, boring domain of the Savings and Loan financial institutions and given to the financial services industries that are, "Wall Street." That was the key to a meteoric rise in the cost of living indoors; maximized profits replaced affordable home ownership as the primary goal of home loans (mortgages).

The situation was made ready for worse gaming/gambling with home loans when the last of Glass-Steagall was repealed in 1999; made the, "Great Recession," almost inevitable. The, "banksters," originating and trading in mortgages began to include those whose financial institutions specialized in investments that promised greater returns; involved greater, much greater, risk. These riskier, gaming/gambling, investment instruments had not previously been allowed to be mingled with consumer loans; primarily mortgages.

Elizabeth Warren, one of the architects of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, has (once again) proposed solutions. You can try to place the blame on a state's governor, but that's not where the problem originates, nor is it where the problem will be resolved.

See also: United Way ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed).

US Election Security

The security of all of our US elections is available right now.

The answer is being stopped by the Republican Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell (Mr. Turtle). Mr. Turtle had used the Senate majority leader's position to stop election security bills from getting a vote during the Obama administration as well.

Open source code is available now to:

Draw the smallest possible districts (for all elected offices) with the correct population; no partisan considerations involved.

Create voting machines that use an electronic ballot and a printed ballot (both can be reviewed by the voter before submitting a vote). A printed ballot is scanned into a collection, lock box while being double checked against the electronically submitted votes; instant auditing. An audit trail of voting is possible with printed ballots to be count later, as needed.

All this open sourced software can be checked for function and security, by multiple technical experts, before being installed on, “air gapped,” (not connected to any network, therefore not connected to an insecure network: Internet) device: voting machines.

The whole process could be completed before the 2020 elections if Mr. Turtle can be publicly, legally, held responsible for any voting problems encountered in any and all future elections.

Democrats in the US Congress; Possibly Due for Reconsideration

The Democrats in the US House of Representatives are cowards!

In 2016 Democrats failed to win a majority sufficient to overcome the Electoral College kludge that Republicans were allowed, by Democrats' solo adherence to, “playing by the rules,” to create... We now have the 45 administration. Said administration has made a mockery of the rule of law and the Constitution, supported by an equally lawless (aiding and abetting or being an accomplice to criminal activity is a crime) Republican majority in the US Senate.

In 2018 the voters returned a Democratic majority to the US House. Our chosen legislators have absolutely refused to fulfill their primary, intended duty of impeaching the lawless buffoon that is the 45^th President of these United States.

It would behoove the Democrats in the US House to remember that by not following through with the primary task assigned, protecting the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic, they too become accomplices to criminal activity.

No, your job is not just to pass legislation, in the House, that the majority leader, Mr. Turtle, will block in the Senate.

The Democratic majority in the US House of Representatives must demonstrate that the rule of law and the balance of power, as prescribed in the Constitution, still have meaning in these United States of America.

Impeach 45!

Trump is a Symptom

Trump is a symptom, not the problem.

This problem started at the end of the Civil War. A, too large, minority of white America lost the artificial air of superiority that was racial prejudice and the extreme characteristic thereof: slavery.

The problem of the white, insecure, racist minority was, more recently, exacerbated by integration, voting rights, minority-majority... Exploded with the election of an African-American to two terms as the President of these United States.

When the majority that elected President Obama failed to turn up consistently at the polls the far, far right minority that had taken over the Republican party was able to elect an incompetent President, capable of being manipulated even more than George W. Bush, to pursue the finishing steps of creating a white nationalist, oligarchy here in the USA: seeding the Judicial branch of government with far, far right wing Jurists/Judges.

The solution, the restoration of majority rule and Democracy in the United States, lies in the diverse hands of the Democratic party.

One of the things that set Democrats apart from Republicans is the ability to allow disagreement amongst ourselves...

It ain't a bad thing to disagree as long as you can come together when the need arises!

We need to come together to take back majorities in state and federal legislatures; come together to elect Governors and win back the US Presidency!

VOTE!

Vote Blue no matter who!

If it bothers anybody terribly to hear that not everybody agrees with you about everything, your biggest problem can be found using a mirror.

The Time for Impeachment is Yesterday

Begin the impeachment process; yesterday!!!

The US House was given a Democratic majority by the voters in the 2018 mid-terms, because it was a mid-term election and the US House was the best alternative we could provide to rid the United States of the clearly criminal 45 administration. The Democrats should avail themselves of the opportunity that they have been given and begin the process of impeaching President Donald J. Trump.

If 45's referred to the Senate for impeachment, especially if it is sent to the Senate on a straight party line vote... If the Republicans in the Senate won't convict...

When presented with the evidence Republicans, in the federal legislature, have the opportunity to choose between party allegiance or oath of office and duty to the Constitution. If allegiance to party is demonstrated in spite of clear and plentiful evidence of, “high crimes and misdemeanors,” then said evidence should be delivered to the appropriate federal prosecutors, in each state, to weigh the possibility of indictments for aiding and abetting or as an accomplice to said, “high crimes and misdemeanors."

If circumstances unfold as mentioned above, it becomes the responsibility of the Democrats to do what is possible to publicize and prosecute, make all information available to appropriate prosecutors and the public, such that said disloyalty to country, oath of office and supporting of related criminality are made ready for continued and necessary prosecutorial action and activity.

Listen to what Robert Mueller wants to say, behind closed doors, behind closed doors!

The Death Spiral of the Republican Party

Why is the Republican party pinning itself to what is being documented, by even the redacted Mueller Report (affirmed in a letter signed by hundreds of past and present legal practitioners), as a criminal, presidential administration?

Let's be real, the Republican party is following a plan to re-prosecute the Civil War.

The Republicans are shameless sycophants to the 45 administration because it allows them, in concert with the Senate majority, to seed the federal courts with far, far right ideologues.

The original Civil War was a military attack on their country by seceding states. When they lost the leaders did not face an appropriate trial for treason; the gallows for convictions. There were no consequences for the soldiers who willingly fought and killed their fellow Americans; see: “insurrection,” in Article !, Section 8 of the US Constitution.

Around the start of the 20^th century many people began to rewrite, misrepresent, the history of the Civil War. No matter how the new version of history misleads, the Constitutions of the seceding states clearly document the right of white people to own people of color as slaves, and the authority to recapture and punish any slave attempting to escape said bonds.

“Majority rules,” used to mean, “white people,” (using an extremely narrow definition of, “white”) ruled until there was minority-majority. This happens when said white people are a plurality and all the rest (non-white), combined, are a majority. This has happened in multiple states (probably including the most populous states of: CA, TX, FL and NY). Reactionary, white, opposition groups have emerged and taken over the Republican party and are making radical, often criminal, efforts to undo or overwhelm the consequences of the aforementioned demographic shift.

If the current, Democratic majority in the US House don't do everything in their power to stop (in this, current session of the legislature) the 45 and Republican effort to throw our nation back 60 to 160 years... Campaign incessantly on the Senate and the 45 administration's efforts to return to early 20^th century's, “Jim Crow,” or worse, the early 19^th century's slave holding culture...

Democracy and the Republic die, on our watch, in these United States of America.

The Roots of Economic Success: in the USA and Beyond

Wealthy people in the USA, and the record-breaking profits of corporate America, are happening because they exist in a society that can afford to buy the products and/or services they sell. All who are alive today were born into a great society and an enormously successful economy, largest in the world, that already existed... To listen to the Americans in the Davos crowd you'd think they were born into lean-to shacks on packed earth trails that existed until they created this society and economic situation.

The US economy was made by a US regulatory environment and the government's investment targeted to, oft government specified, research and development (a list of government offices that support enormous quantities of research and development can be found by searching the Internet for web sites like the Federally Funded Research and Development Centers - FFRDC) . The successful, 20th century, US economy was built with marginal tax rates of 70 - 91%. Tax payers are the original, crowd sourced funding that built the society we enjoy. Getting everybody to pay their fair share of taxes is the only way this economic success continues.

Wealthy folks, of the 1% crowd, point proudly to their foundations and associated charitable giving, but (if they'd check) they'd find their foundations would all be bankrupted by the annual spending of some of the largest states; all bankrupted in months by the budget of the United States. The 1% would be better served by doing their part in continuing the society they live in, were born into, that made their wealth possible and sustainable, by paying their fair share of taxes.

Views on Restoring US Democracy from a Democrat, Moderated Capitalist

It is time for a perspective from this progressive Democrat/Moderated Capitalist...

We have seen the four page summary of the Mueller Report, rumored to be almost 400 pages (because nobody outside the AG's office has seen the actual report), from 45's appointed Attorney General, who wrote a nineteen page application for said office, William Barr.

We have seen the media run with the AG's report as if it were conclusively representative of a report that none of them has seen.

While we wait to see the actual, unabridged version of the Special Counsel's report...

Here is what I believe that Democrats have to do to restore Democracy to the United States of America.

First, we must take back majorities in the legislative bodies of more than half of the several states. We also need Democratic governors in these same states. It is from these states that we might undo the harm done to Democracy by:

1. Gerrymandered, Republican safe, districts;
2. Electronic voting machines that create, intentionally, a ballot that, once cast, can not be audited;
3. Purged voter rolls;
4. Awkward, limited (not automated), voter registration;
5. Targeted removal of polling places;
6. Biased photo identification requirements;
7. Etc...

In 2020's elections we must turn out as many voters as humanly possible to overwhelm the biases that we can't remove before the elections of 2020. Everybody that has had any disagreement and/or run-in with the aforementioned, anti-democratic mischief must be certain that they are registered and make the effort needed to vote (in every election).

To all the Democrats running for President, already... We need to hold a majority in the US House and establish a majority (preferably a filibuster proof 60 votes) in the US Senate, or a Democratic President means nothing; ask President Obama.

We must promote moderated capitalism that will be fraudulently labeled as Socialism. Competition amongst capitalists is regulated so that there is a level playing field where multiple capitalists, in a given market, might succeed; a market that benefits consumers/customers. Deregulated (laissez-faire, feudal) capitalism pits capitalists against one another in a winner takes all competition that creates a monopoly; benefits the victorious capitalist.

Government will still strive to make a best effort at the things that benefit the economy for as close to everybody as possible. Those things that provide little, or no, return on investment (ROI) in the short time frames essential to a business that must profit to survive (e.g., common carrier infrastructure, education, etc...) These will continue to be paid for by the first, crowd sourced, funding method: taxation. Taxes are funding from a pool of as close to everybody, who can afford to pay in, to the benefit of as close to absolutely everybody as is possible.

Provide health care for as close to everybody as is possible: single payer health care. There is hand ringing about this from the folks who are in the businesses of health care for maximized revenue/profit. They pretend not to know how this will work, except that it is already working (verifiable lower costs and better results) in every industrialized and developing nation in the world, except ours.

Single payer health care from one's very first to the very last breath is, “pro-life;” all else is pretense to concern.

So, as we await the delivery of an unabridged Mueller Report to the US House of Representatives, those Constitutionally obligated to determine if what a President has done rises to the level of impeachable activity (it need not be criminal), and for the criminal indictment, for obstruction of justice, to be handed to AG Barr; Sessions recused himself to avoid this particular consequence.

Remember this process is frustratingly slow because it is treading where the founding fathers did not anticipate that the government of these United States would ever find itself; where it currently is. They did not determine definitions and consequences that one would apply when one of the three branches of the federal government decides to deliberately, and purposely abandon their duties (as a check and balance on the two other branches of the federal government), and abandon their oath of office (to defend the Constitution against enemies foreign an domestic), as was done in the first two years of the 45 administration by the Republican majority in the US House.

I hope the only party of Democracy, Democrats, can get out of their own way, quit using definitions created by the far right-wing radicals that have destroyed the Republican party, and save us from ourselves. We helped create this mess by not voting in sufficient numbers and/or by refusing to vote because our choice wasn't on the ballot, or because one couldn't find, “suitable,” candidates.

Voters get out and vote... Democracy does not survive if you don't.