June 22, 2017

I am my sister's and my brother's keeper. And this is why...

I am a Democrat.

I believe in helping my less fortunate brothers and sisters, unlike the Republicans, who only want to see them disappear, preferably quickly.

I believe that ALL of us deserve to live freely and without pain under the sun.

I believe that we have a RIGHT to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

As John Donne said it: "...I am involved in mankind. Every man's death diminishes me..."


What the Republicans are trying to do angers me, and causes me to rise up to stop them in any way possible.

Who's with me?

June 22, 2017

From today's LA Times: Kansas vs. CA on taxes.

This is a very well-written op-ed about the effects of taxation on Kansas and California.

"Republican legislators in Kansas did the unthinkable this month: They voted to raise income taxes, ending a painful five-year experiment with an extreme anti-tax agenda introduced by Republican Gov. Sam Brownback. The Republican-held Legislature had to override a veto by the governor to pass the emergency tax increase, now crucial to prevent deep budget cuts for schools and other essential public services.

Kansas embarked on its trickle-down experiment in 2012. Brownback slashed taxes across the board, calling his plan “a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy.” Five years later, the state’s economy is on life support, and government expenses are expected to outpace income by $1.1 billion through June 2019. Instead of a poster child for the small-government theories championed by economist Arthur Laffer, tax reform activist Grover Norquist and the rest of the Republican Party, Kansas has become a cautionary tale about what happens when you expose their economic ideas to sunlight.

Meanwhile, a state that Republicans love to mock – California – has done just the opposite. In November of 2012, the same year Kansas plunged into its tax-slashing experiment, more than 54% of California voters approved Proposition 30, a measure that temporarily raised income taxes for the state’s wealthiest residents and increased the sales tax in order to fund schools and pay down debt. The tax hikes helped California erase $27 billion in debt, and the state has since enjoyed some of the strongest economic growth in the country. (Of course that growth isn’t due to tax hikes alone; the state has a robust tech sector, among other factors.)

If states can indeed serve as laboratories of democracy, as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis suggested, there’s no question which state embarked on the more successful test.
Why do Republicans want to replicate Kansas’s failure on a national scale?"

All of it at the link: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-steyer-kansas-tax-cuts-brownback-california-20170622-story.html

June 15, 2017

From the Liberals Unite Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/Liberals.Unite.today/photos/a.354975407920296.85172.353967728021064/1391089507642209/?type=3&theater

June 1, 2017

I think that part of tRump's motivation is this:

Any attention is better than no attention.

Everything he does is to keep the spotlight on him. I don't think he cares if it's positive or negative, just as long as he gets it. Of course, positive attention is the BEST.

He's like a bad little kid in this. We've all known them. Some folks never grow up or out of this phase.

And we got stuck with him.

May 30, 2017

This looks like old news, since the date is March, 2017, but...it looks good to me.

http://leftopia.org/breaking-caroline-kennedy-announces-plan-to-fight-trump-her-family-is-proud/

~snip~
Kennedy” is a legendary name in American politics, and now it might just be a Kennedy who brings Trump DOWN in 2020.

That’s because John F. Kennedy’s daughter could very well be our next president!

For the past three years, Caroline Kennedy has faithfully served as the U.S. ambassador to Japan.

And it was during those three years that Kennedy earned herself a reputation for being an exceptionally capable stateswoman with presidential ambitions.

Daniel R. Russel, an Assistant Secretary of the State Department, can’t say enough kind things about Kennedy’s diplomacy skills. He’s saying that she’s the real deal, no ifs, ands, or buts.

“She transformed herself from a celebrity into an influential public figure and statesman,” Russel said. “[She] became trusted, respected, liked and listened to.” ~snip~

The rest at the link.

May 18, 2017

When I agree with Max Boot, you know something big's afoot ...

From today's LA Times Op-Ed:

If Donald Trump is forced to leave office early — a prospect that is no longer as unimaginable as it once was — May 9-16 will become known as the seven days that shook the world.

It is almost hard to remember now the media hoopla that accompanied Trump’s 100th day in office on April 29. Many pundits, myself included, wrote that Trump was normalizing. The past seven days have been anything but normal; indeed, they constitute the most bizarre week of the U.S. presidency since the dark days of Watergate.

Trump's Time of Troubles began with the Tuesday Night Massacre: the shocking firing of FBI Director James Comey. The ostensible explanation was Comey's improper public comments about the Hillary Clinton email investigation, as laid out in a memorandum from Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein. But within two days Trump had blown that explanation to smithereens, admitting he would have fired Comey regardless, simply because he wanted to bring the investigation of his own links to Russia (“a made-up story”) to an end.

The very next day, Trump hosted the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in the Oval Office, producing embarrassing photos of the president yukking it up with America’s inveterate foes. It turns out that he shared with the Russians “code-word” secrets — that is, some of the most highly classified information in the entire government. In the process Trump burned Israel, which had provided the information, and risked exposing an invaluable source of intelligence on Islamic State. The president at first sent his aides to falsely deny what he had done, and then, just as in the Comey case, came clean.
For the good of the country, Trump should resign before our new national nightmare gets worse.


All of it at the link: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-boot-trump-should-resign-20170517-story.html

May 16, 2017

A dear friend has a daughter who is having unemployment problems.

He wrote me today for support and possibly, help.

I told him I would ask all of you for ideas.

She is past 50 and had worked for the County. She is running out of money and ideas. Unemployment insurance is short term and inadequate.

She does not live in a metropolitan area, so perhaps her options are limited.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

May 11, 2017

Some recent moon shots...........

May 11, 2017

Two recent moon shots...

May 3, 2017

Today's LA Times, Op-Ed: Doyle Mc Manus on Trump

Remember March, when Democrats were in a swivet over President Trump’s budget proposal – the one that threatened to gut the Environmental Protection Agency, eliminate funding for public broadcasting and the arts, and use the money for a border wall?

Never mind. The spending bill Congress produced this week cuts the EPA by all of 1%, increases spending on the arts by $2 million – and prohibits any spending on a wall. It was – gasp! – an old-fashioned bipartisan compromise, with Republicans getting more money for defense and homeland security. But conservatives were furious. Rush Limbaugh called the bill a “disaster.” Members of the House Freedom Caucus said this wasn’t the small-government tsunami they were promised.

That’s the story of the Trump Revolution so far: big, disruptive promises, followed by confusion, wrangling in Congress and the courts -- and only modest adjustments to the status quo.

The president’s biggest campaign promises have mostly been stymied. There’s been no repeal of Obamacare. (Even if the House passes a healthcare bill, Obamacare will survive in some form.) No withdrawal from NAFTA. No trade war with China. No infrastructure plan to provide jobs for construction workers. No deportation force to go with the unbuilt wall.

Link: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-mcmanus-trump-rule-20170503-story.html