Kavanaugh and the Catholic Church

A lot is being made of the difference between the reactions to men accusing the Catholic Church of sexual abuse, and women accusing Brett Kavanaugh of sexual abuse.  Our society believes the latter but not the former.  It may very well be the anti-feminist nature of our society.  However, part of the reaction to the Church sex abuse case may be deeply rooted in our long standing anti-Catholoism. This country is hate on steroids and Roman Catholics have been targets of that hate.  Many years ago it was the story of Maria Monk, a Catholic num who wrote of sex crimes in a monastery and children being murdered.  A hoax yes, but Americans believed it.  Then there was a story of 800 Irish children being thrown down a sewer pit.  Another hoax, widely believed.  In 1924 the KKK kept a Catholic governor-Al Smith-off the democratic ticket for president, and we all know that John Kennedy had to explain why his religion shouldn't bar him from the presidency.

So for the case today of sex abuse by Catholic priests, I don't know how much is true.  I do know how easy it has been for this country to believe the worst about Catholics.  This might account for some of the difference between how we perceive the Christine Blaise Ford case and male children being abused.

Recent News Items/Jan 2018

From the Virginian Pilot on Jan 26, 2018...the US is sending a aircraft carrier to Vietnam, the first since the end of the war there in 1975.  China is not happy about our improving relationship with Vietnam.  Are we trying to provoke another conflict in southeast Asia?  To think that we were told that if Vietnam went communist the whole of southeast Asia would follow, and for that reason we fought a war there that killed 58,000 American young men and injured thousands more.  The policy makers now say they were wrong about our need to fight that war, but none of them went to prison and many continued to make US foreign policy.  I buy products now made in Vietnam and it just pisses me off that the country we destroyed and lost countless lives in is now a trading partner.

Our Secretary of Defense recently said that we have to prepare for war with Russia and China so must increase our defense spending to further absurd levels.

Maybe I don't know what I am really trying to say here, but the Vietnam War was the war of my age and the whole experience (like being drafted and then having that chicken hawk Don Rumsfeld telling us that draftees did nothing for the war effort), to this day just angers me.  Vietnam War veterans are the ones who really deserve our thanks.  

The Virginian Pilot recently reported on the pending sale of a concrete plant in Cape Charles, VA (on the tip of the Eastern Shore).  In 2014 the plant got a $ 1.2 million incentive "from state and local government" to enlarge its facility there and had agreed to hire 135 workers.  "The company laid off 81 workers a year later when the expansion was finished, and it closed a Chesapeake plant"

Amazon is set to gain from the income tax plan of donald trump, and I read in the news (1/23/18) that the company is planing of "no cashiers, no registers, no cash-this is how Amazon sees the future of store shipping".  (So much for the tax plan creating jobs).

Some thoughts of late.

First.  It seems the republicans and Donald Trump have a method  to the things they are saying.  For example, take the claims by DJT that Hillary Clinton's popular vote majority was based on illegal aliens voting.  Trump makes the claim on twitter and where ever he speaks; Clinton won the popular vote only because the democrats got millions of illegal residents to vote for her, especially in New Hampshire where Trump says the illegals were bussed in from Massachusetts.  Congress then determines to investigate the claim and a trump friendly congressman takes on the job.  That committee "investigates" and determines that there is no evidence to support Trump's claim.  You might think the issue is then finalized, but no.  The committee and Trump then claim that the popular vote majority for Clinton can't be proven, thus we don't know if Clinton the won the popular vote or not.  Trump claims that he won the electoral vote and no one knows about the popular vote.

Second.  Alaska has a fund called the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD).  The fund pays every Alaskan citizen who can prove they have lived in the state for a year and plans to stay a yearly stipend, that is based on the oil wealth that comes out of Alaska.  In 2015 that stipend was $ 2072 (per person; family of four over $ 8000).  However, the fund only paid $ 1022 in 2016 (don't know why).  I am not be-grudging Alaskans their free loot but it causes me to wonder why Alaskan don't lose the incentive to work by getting a handout from the state.  It is also interesting to note that Alaska has just about always voted republican in national elections and republicans are highly critical of any government program that gives people "free shit".

Third.  I will have to admit that this next thought is bizarre but then again the whole issue of abortion has been batted around since 1972.  My thought is the position doctor (or nurse) might take on abortion should be influenced to some degree by where they received their medical training.  If that training came from a state university then it seems that the law on abortion should be a factor in determine one's position on the issue.  If that training came from a religious institution (like the University of Notre Dame) then a factor is determine one's position should be the moral position of that institution.

Trump

Trump makes a claim-without evidence-of wide spread voting by illegal aliens.  The GOP Congress then establishes a committee to investigate the claim.  They find no evidence to support the claim.  The committee then reports they can find no evidence one way or the other and reports it can't be determined if the claim is true, leaving some to believe (and trump to claim) that there might very well have been illegal voting but we just don't know for sure.

"Lock her up"

"Lock her up" he yelled at every campaign stop.  He said her use of e-mails could have divulged classified info to the enemies of this country.

Remember the media going ballistic over the news  that  Andrew Weiner was reading those electronic ejaculations because he was married to an aide to Hillary Clinton?  Oh, the threat to national security was beyond incredible.

Now we know that he (you know the "big fool" in the words of Pete Seeger and his "Waist deep in the Big Muddy") has personally shared classified information with several Russians who are his business partners and also officials of the Russian state.

Need I say it?  LOCK HIM UP.

Barack Obama post WH

Former president Barack Obama has made a cool $ 800,000 recently by giving a speech and and interview over the last week or so.  To a group of Wall Street people he spoke and was paid $ 400,000 and gave an interview with Doris Kerns Goodwin for 90 minutes to the group of advertisers.  He was paid another $ 400,000 for that piece of work (nice work if you can get it).  I wonder what extra sexual favors he was obliged to provide for that fee?  

Is it any wonder why many people are now thinking that the democratic party is just another extension of the republican party; you know like republican-lite.  I do think that was what many were considering in November of last year when Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton were the only two choices with a chance of winning to pick from.

Elections

I hope after this election is over we quit telling other countries how to run their elections.  I know Winston Churchill once said "Democracy is the worse form of government, except for all others".  If this election goes any longer, it will give reason to call into question the wisdom of that old English statesman.

Thought for the day Oct 10, 2016

People do not want to be educated, they want to be entertained.  Think about the ancient Romans and pitting Gladiators against each other to fight to the death.  All for the entertainment of the Roman citizens.  Think of our devotion to the sports of every season and the television programs with violence and sex 24/7; it's entertainment that is the key, and that applies to our election process for President.  It would seem Donald Trump understands that and he just might be proven correct on November 8th. (God forbid).

First Presidential Debate of 2016

The "fact checker" for The Record newspaper in Bergen County, NJ provided some answers to statements that were incorrect.  First, Clinton stated she did not call the Trans-Pacific Partnership the "gold standard" of trade agreements.  Trump said she did.  Trump is correct.  She said it during a 2012 trip to Australia.  Second, Trump has claimed he can not release his tax returns because they "are under audit".  That is incorrect.  His attorney's say his returns are "under review"; they do not say audit.  Trump says he is audited every year; IRS officials claim no one is audited that frequently. Third, Trump says he got his start with a one million dollar gift from his father.  He really got "loan guarantees of $ 10 million and a 2005 report stated he "drew an additional $ 10 million from his future inheritance".

"Every Gun That is Made..." IKE

In April of 1953, upon leaving office, President Dwight Eisenhower (a republican, for those who think the GOP only had Donald Trump) gave a speech known by the above title.  It is more pertinent now than ever before and I will record some of it below.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired  signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.  This world in arms is not spending money alone.
It is spending the sweat of it's laborers, the genius of it's scientists, the hopes of it's children.
The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities.
It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population.
It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals.  It is some 50 miles of concrete highway.
We pay a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat.
We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8000 people.
This, I  repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking.
This is not a way of life at all, in any sense.  Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."

(I would only add that the cost of those weapons might very well be greater today than in 1953).

Trump and "war on terror".

Trump says he will impose a process of questioning Muslim immigrants that would include "extreme vetting" (sounds like torture to me) and would deny entry into the US "...not only those with terrorist sympathizers but those who believe in Shariah law, don't believe in the US Constitution (how are immigrants going to know what's in the Constitution when most Americans don't know what' in it) or support BIGOTRY AND HATRED" (my emphasis).  This from the man supported by the American Nazi Party and the Klu Klux Klan?

Some thoughts today

Green Party candidate Jill Stein noted on his site and something called "Ring of Fire" that the US has 700 to 800 military bases around the world and "only 16 % of the US budget is  spent on military operations at home and abroad".

Huffington Post on 8/16/16 reports that 64 million Americans are paid less than $ 15 an hour.  This group of workers has recently held a "convention".  I have no other information on this convention at this time.  Research is required.

47 % Americans pay no income tax bit.

My friend Steve posted on Facebook recently that Mitt Romney claim that "47 % of Americans who pay ZERO federal income tax are voting on what to charge everyone else".

My response to Steve:  But they pay social security taxes, federal excise taxes, state income taxes, sales taxes and many pay property taxes.  How many of this number are wealthy who pay not federal income taxes; I know at (least )two.  To our knowledge Donald Trump pays no federal income tax, and the only way that can be disproved is if the Donald releases his income tax records like all other major presidential candidates.  Prove me wrong and "I'll kill your ass in Macy's window".

My musings for today.

I am  trying to stay off Facebook to give my friends a rest from hearing my excellent political commentary.  I don't want them to have to say "I wish I thought of that".  Anyway here are come comments for today.

1.  Clinton delegates: she still does not have enough earned delegates to win the nomination outright. If the super delegates don't stick with her, the convention would be wide open.  Some democracy we preach.  After a full season of primaries and caucus's the voice of the people is still going to take a back seat to the political establishment.  And we want to sell out system around the world?  A system where those who vote stick their finger in an ink well to indicate they voted might be better than the millions we spend to get a result that is highly suspect.

2.  Donald Trump is taking aim at NATO and questioning why we should be spending our money to defend places that don't spend their own.  It is dangerous to tell former republics of the Soviet Union we will come to their defense if Russia attacks.  How would we respond if Hawaii and Alaska decide to go it alone and Russia makes a defense treaty with them.  Going "ape shit" would be my guess. Trump is going to get a lot of people nodding their heads in agreement with his anti NATO spending plan.  I have been thinking for a long time that the US  should just pull its forces back from most of the areas in the world we have them and tend to business in this country.  Isolationism I know some will say, but we are spending billions on places in the world where the money would do more good here at home.  George McGovern use to say in 1972 "Come Home America".

3.  New Jersey legislature has come up a plan to fund the highway construction program in the state by raising a sales tax (gas tax) every gallon purchased and compromising with anti tax conservatives by ending the estate tax and giving back other tax breaks to select groups, like seniors and veterans.  So conservatives that want to re-distribute wealth.  Well this is exactly what this plan is.  It shifts the burden of paying for transportation needs from the very wealthy to the middle class and poor.

Trump and Authoritarianism

Donald Trump's appeal to many may be to those who crave an authoritarian approach to life.  It may not be his racism after all, or his put down of women in his appeal to white men.  It could very well be that many of us today want an authority figure, someone who is a "law and order" man.  Someone who will make decision for us and take charge.  As Erich Fromm once penned, people want an "escape from freedom" for it is much easier to follow than to decide for oneself.  Interesting concept for a party that keeps stressing individual freedom (at least for the buying of weapons).

News items of interest to myself that I once would have posted to Face Book I will now post here.  July 2016.

July 2016:  Hillary Clinton's E-mail investigation is in the news (and has been for quite a long time) again because the Congressional investigation has ended at a cost of $ 7 million.  I would like to know "how many jobs did that congressional effort create?"

Trump's comments about Mexicans and Muslims (negative always) has created a attitude in this country that bigotry is fashionable again.  People in the public eye can create a atmosphere that makes others follow along.  JFK created a atmosphere of public service and many young people went into teaching or the Peace Corps; a positive impact I would note.  Jimmy Carter made conservation  fashionable and people walked more and drove slower and wore sweaters instead of turning up the heat and using more electricity.  On the other hand, Ronald Reagan made it fashionable for us to hate the government and there are now militia groups arming themselves so they can take down the government if they so desire.  Now Trump, with his tirades against Muslims and Mexicans and immigrants has increased the occurrence of racial and group hatred.  And instead of blaming Trump for the impact of his actions, we blame Obama for them.

At the end of Bill Clinton's term of office the budget had a pretty nice surplus.  Al Gore and democrats wanted to set that money aside to fund Social Security well into the future.  Put the money in a "lock box" Gore said.  George Bush and the republicans wanted to return that money to individual tax payers.  Because Bush won a corrupt election the surplus was returned to individuals, the vast majority going to the wealthy like himself and Dick Cheney.  Now with the Social Security fund is running low the republicans want to cut the benefits to Social Security.  How anybody today depending on SS to provide basic needs and voting for republicans has to boggle the mind.

US Constitution

It seems to me that those who talk so much about Constitution know the least about it; except for one half of one Amendment.  Those who complain about federal government "dictatorial" actions should study the document.  There are so many ways the Constitution divides and separates power to protect a system based on democracy.  Powers are granted to the state government and the federal government.  Education, for example, is a state responsibility;  national defense a federal.  Separation of powers grants to each branch fields of action, the Amendments grant to the people protection against abusive government.  

The Constitution works, not always perfectly, but it works.  Its wrong that some who don't get their way want to change it; they would not come up with anything better.  If we don't live by the law we live by the one who presently holds power.  That is a receipt for disaster.

Political Speech

When politicians or pubic figures (like Ronald Reagan or Donald Trump and others) who trash talk the government they give emotional support and encouragement to those who just want an excuse to be violent. As in Nazi Germany the anti-Semitic laws of Nuremberg and before that the anti-Jewish retoric led directly to the gas chambers at Auschwitz.  You can't preach hate and not expect some of the flock will take it to the next level.

Items from The Nation Dec 21, 2015

One of every seven black children has a parent in "behind bars', while one in every 57 white children do.  Jailing of blacks, while obviously impacting the male black population, is also having a huge negative impact of children, something that is not often noted.

Ralph Nader, consumer advocate, wrote Unsafe At Any Speed causing a major impact on auto safety in this country.  It is noted that his book caused the creation by LBJ of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  The standards the NHTSA created (safety regulations) "reduce(d) the rate of deaths per mile driven by nearly 80 %"...saving as many as 3.5 million lives (some experts claim).

"Laissez-faire" is really "laissez isn;t always fair" re article on Nader.  There are three ways that capitalism can be improved by government.  First, prohibit, like discrimination in hiring.  Second, mandate "floors of behaviour" like how much pollution can be tolerated.  Third, disclosure of things like nicotine and tar in cigarettes, or industrial pollution, or cribs that kill, etc.

United States history;  the period after the Civil War was marked by and increase in democracy-former slaves could vote.  That was called Reconstruction.  That was followed by a reduction is voting rights for black, a period called Redemption.  Then with the passage of the Voting Right Act in 1965 (VRA) a period called the Second Reconstruction.  Now with the Roberts Court and the gutting of the VRA we have a Second Redemption period.  What next?

Some thoughts for today Dec 13

One of our few key Arab allies in the Middle East has just now decided to let women vote.  Saudi Arabia- an oil rich dictatorship with human rights issues and possible support for Islamic terrorist-is a partner of ours in bringing democracy to that part of the world.  Doesn't seem to me like the plan is working.

In an op ed article in The Record today a writer for the Bloomberg news noted that a "erstwhile Republican campaign icon" (?) wrote a letter to a father who lost a child in a shooting rampage in California in 2014 and said that while he sympathized with the father for the loss of his child he also said "...your dead kids don't trump my Constitutional rights".  Could someone have really sent that letter?

The Navy reported today that its newest ship-USS Milwaukee-broke down at sea on the way to its home port in Mayport, FL and had to be towed home by a salvage ship.  This is the littoral combat ship (whatever that is)