Questions Being Asked By No One: The Real American Tragedy

It is rather interesting that in our spirited Republican campaign we get very little substance.  Despite the discussion that Fox would outdo CNBC, most of what was asked of candidates simply didn’t concern me…  I speak for the silent America.

Here is what should be asked.  There is not a right or wrong answer yet.  They haven’t yet been tried.  But our nation is facing some consequential changes and many of us would like to know what our potential leaders would do to face them.

Granted there are both Republican and Democratic responses to these questions.  But America is being denied any discussion upon them… and has its attention diverted to personalities I think, for the sole purpose to keep these burning questions buried, hidden, and never shown the light of day….

1. How would you fix education in America.  What is your plan and how long do you think it will take before it begins to work?
2. Why are all the benefits of our work going to a few people? 
3. How do we restore democracy?
4. How do we return jobs to America from overseas without cutting wages to levels seen in countries like the Philippines or China?
5. How do we stop global warming? 
6. Businesses hire when demand increases, How do we increase demand?  
7. What is government’s role in a democracy when it comes to markets?
8. How do we reduce our prison population?
9. Who are the largest donors to your campaign and what do they want in return?
10. How do we prevent gerrymandering?
11. Estimates for peak oil range from its already happened to at the very latest 2060. What is your plan to deal with the end of oil?
12. Black people are 4 times more likely to be killed in police custody than white. What do we as a country need to be doing about this? 
13. How do we return the middle class? 
14. How do we create a better Internet?
15. Why are we outsourcing public schools? 
16. What do we do about “too big to fail” banks? 
17. How do we get the influence of big money out of our elections?
18. Big or little.  What is the perfect size for government in a dollar figure.  How big should it be in $$$$?

There may be more questions that are pertinent. These are a start… Now as Delawareans there is little you can do to affect the national outcome… But just take these questions to our state races and begin asking them there. Ask our future governor; ask our future Senator, ask our future Congressperson.  Print and take this along. If someone else asks a question you were intending, just switch and ask another off this list..

And because you held your representative accountable, we then begin to get the government we deserve.

One parting shot.

In past elections, question like this were asked by our media all the time.  They are purposefully or extremely negligent not to ask them now.

WE NEED THAT GAS TAX!

And can someone hold he door for Valerie Longhurst then let go of it so it hits her on her way out?

If the gas tax had gone in place  January 1st,  Gas would have paused one week before dropping lower…  Instead of going:

• $2.69
• $2.59
• $2.49
• $2.39
• $2.29
• $2.19

it would have gone like this….

• $2.69
• $2.59
• $2.49
• $2.39
• $2.39
• $2. 29

Did you see the difference?  You would’t have if you weren’t paying attention at the pump…

Now, look at what we are losing…

• No construction projects to alleviate blockage on SR 1 south of the mall
• No construction projects to move traffic around Middletown.
• No money to fix pot holes causing $88 dollars of damage every time you hit one…
• Road construction companies idling their employees over lack of contracts.

And one major asset for having this gas tax passed?   40% of it will be paid from people just passing through who get gas.  There has never been a better tax.

And everyone is begging  for more taxes now; more taxes make for more prosperity… Schools need more taxes. inner Cities need more taxes, the County needs more taxes, all of which get spend and then go right into our pockets.

But due to some lack of wisdom in Valerie Longhurst. the time for a new tax came and went…  If we were paying $3.55 a gallon then, we’d be paying $1.99 a cheap gallon today.  No one will miss ten cents.

This should be the first bill put up in Both state houses.

You May Have Missed This? I Almost Did…… Comment Rescue

The reason why teachers were right all along is because they studied the mandatory college course of Child Development, unlike their business school curriculum developers. The Piaget child development model, the most accepted model of child development for childhood learning, teaches that:

• Ages 2-7 learn by play, hands on, manipulatives,
• Ages 7-11 are concrete thinkers which is why addition, subtraction, multiplication formulas and multiplication tables are successful with this group, and finally,
• 11 and older is when logic develops and is a good time to introduce algorithms, algebraic equations, and different ways to figure out and understand new ways to get an answer.

The baby crawls before walking and walks before jumping because of their muscle development. Babies will not be better athletes if made to jump first. Children will not be better students if made to do algebraic equations in kindergarten

Doesn’t Every Parent Today Feel Like This?

“Imagine you are a former doctor. And years ago you saw sick patients, you had the magic medicine that cured them when they were sick. When the directions were followed, the medicine was successful. Now, you’ve been away and things have changed. You peer into the medical field to find the magic medicine is NO where to be found and the doctors are using a medicine that keeps the patients sick. But YOU HAVE the medicine’s formula. You’re jumping and screaming, ‘Hey! Over here! I have the medicine that WORKS!’ But no one hears you. Not only does no one hear you, but the entire country is now using the fake stuff that doesn’t even work. THAT’S where I’m at. I’m jumping up and down here when I need to find a way to shout it from the rooftops, to yell it in the ears of the people that CAN change it. If someone can tell me who and how…I’ll even start at the bottom. But it needs to change. I will sacrifice time or whatever it takes and be the voice if others cannot. I am determined to change our children’s future.

Courtesy of Susan Ward and Kevin Ohlandt

(It is time for the corporate reformers to stop pretending they are doing this to save children… It’s a waste of time, and they are fooling no one.  The disguise is torn and we now all know what is driving the reform inside the charade.)

Why You Can’t Make Ends Meet

You should be making $18,000 more a year right now.  And would, except for the inequality put in place  beginning with the trickle down policies of Ronald Reagan… now more appropriately called “tinkle” down economics… 

The bottom get pissed on.

The heavy line shows where you would be if the average rate of growth from across the years ’79 to ’10 were applied evenly.  The lighter line shows the reality….

99% of us are all earning an average of $18,000 less than we should be…  So how does this break down?

Average household incomes grew by 53.4 percent from 1979 to 2007. But that didn’t break down equally:

• The bottom fifth of households saw their income go up by 29.2 percent, well below the 53.4 percent average.
• Income for the middle fifth of households grew by a measly 19.7 percent.
• But how did people a little higher up, but not at the very top, do? A little better, but still below average: households between the 81st and 90th percentiles—so in the bottom half of the top fifth of the income ladder—had just 39.1 percent income growth. Again, well below that average of 53.4.
• So how far up do you have to go before you hit the average? The 91st to the 95th percentile almost got there, with 53 percent average growth. But they fell just short. Households between the 96th and 99th percentile seriously exceeded 53.4 percent, though. They had average income growth of 78.1 percent.
• That’s nothing compared to the top 1 percent, though: Their income grew by 244.7 percent, close to five times the average.

It is clear that most of the overall income gains from 1979 to 2007 bypassed the vast majority of American households. As such, their living standards are lower than they would be had these gains been shared more broadly.

Ways To Share More Broadly.

A.  Raise the Minimum Wage:  $10.10 is a start.  

B.  Organize More (and throw out ineffective current bosses) Unions. Override All State Laws Outlawing Unions.

C.  Reduce Wage Theft:  charging workers for uniforms, drinks, food, supplies. Cheating on overtime.

D. Tax the top 1% appropriately…  Include Capital Gains as income. Tax Corporations at the same rate as individuals. Raise the top marginal percents to these levels…

• Over $1 billion in income…  tax rate of 60%
• $500 million to $1 billion in income  = 55%
• $100 million to $500 million in income  = 50%
• $50 million to $100 million in income =  45%
• All the rest: no change….  

On top of this, allow all money put into capital improvements, to be deducted dollar for dollar. (Capital improvements require building things).  The rational is that if you put that money into capital improvements, you are improving this nation as much as if you were directly paying taxes to it.  Perhaps more so.

This can be done, but it must be done with a Democratic Executive, and over 60 Democrats in the Senate (or change the filibuster rules), and a fully Democratic House.  That is what has to happen for any change.  If it doesn’t happen then Americans rightly get what they deserve for being stupid.  Because we all know that Republicans are quite happy with the very fact that you ARE making $18,000 less than you should and quite happy that they are the ones receiving it, not you……. 

It wasn’t supposed to go that way. And it shouldn’t go that way….. 

 

 

 

 

 

Cut Day Has Arrived….

No, it is not a day to slice one’s arms.  It is the NFL’s day of saying you are on the team, or you are off…. The training camps are over, the preliminary games are done; the next games are for real…. 

This is something that happens in sports on a regular basis.  Those who can lead the team forward get to stay, and those who drag it behind, get the pink slip…..

No one would expect it to go the other way… 

Yet in our nation’s politics, the other way seems to happen more than not…  The House Republicans have forced Congress to be the least productive in history, had wasted millions on political investigations, only to have them all come up empty-handed; have shut down government and cost the economy $24 billion; by stating they were going to default on America’s debt, one house lowered our credit rating.  And we got nothing resolved for it; the only thing the Republican Congress has done is kick the debt ceiling up the road… It comes due again after the election.

America could be so much better if there were fewer Republicans.   It is America’s duty to make sure the team we put on our field, is the best one we can possibly find.  Stocking it with losers does no one any good at all.

We need the best… and that means people who will put effort into making big plays, not those ones sitting on the bench, refusing to play unless their absurd demands are met…..

It’s cut day for Congress too…. You need to cut them…. 

Prediction: Hemp Will Save The Small American Farm

You heard it here first.  More on this later, but first all need to work to make hemp completely legal…  Hemp  is God’s gift to America, and I don’t mean when it goes up in smoke.  I am speaking of  fibers…

Begin educating those who won’t vote for hemp legalization….

The hemp plant is a renewable resource..

Hemp enriches the soil it grows in. …

Hempseeds and hemp oil are highly nutritious and delicious…

Hemp is the only plant that contains all of the essential fatty acids and amino acids required by the human body… (stop over-fishing).

It is an excellent option for vegetarians.

It’s quite high in some essential amino acids, including gamma linoleic acid (GLA), a very rare nutrient also found in mother’s milk.

Fishermen sprinkle hempseed on the water as an effective bait..

Songbirds will pick it out of the mix as they prefer it over other seeds.

Hemp is becoming a common ingredient in lotions and many other skin, hair, and cosmetic products.. (compared to toxic chemicals).

Hemp is an ideal material for making paper. It regenerates in the field in months (unlike trees which can take 30 years or more to become harvestable after planting.)…

It makes a fine quality paper that is naturally acid free and does not become yellow and brittle or disintegrate over time like conventional paper.

Hemp is also excellent for making rugs and other textiles.  Levi Strauss’ original denim jeans were made of hemp.

Hemp is the traditional rope making fibre due to its flexibility, strength, and resistance to water damage..

Hemp oil can be used to create biofuels to replace gasoline for diesel engines. Unlike fossil fuels, biofuels are renewable and produce less of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.  Diesel built his original engine to run on hemp oil.

Alternatives to plastic can be made from hemp… Hemp based materials can replace wood and other materials used to build homes and other structures including foundations, walls, shingles, paneling, pipes, and paint.

Hemp may look like marijuana, however it does not contain the active chemicals that cause mind-altering effects.  Politics have kept this gift from us.  When Dupont made nylon, it influence was used to suppress hemp production….

“58,000 tons of hemp seeds were imported into America for paint products in 1935″ — Sherman Williams Paint Co.

Hemp produces the same amount of oxygen while it’s growing that it would use in carbon dioxide if burned as a fuel. Also, due to it’s leaf/root ratio (this can often be 10% roots vs 30% leaves), hemp can produce between 20% – 40% more oxygen than will be polluted.

Thomas Jefferson himself said, “Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country.”

The draft of the Declaration of Independence was made on hemp paper….

The first American Flag was made of hemp.

If hemp cross-pollinates with marijuana, it creates a lower THC marijuana, not a smokable hemp… Illegal growers will not grow near hemp farms because it practically destroys the effectiveness and marketability of their product.

Fabrics made of at least one-half hemp block the sun’s UV rays more effectively than other fabrics..

The US Drug Enforcement Agency classifies all C. sativa (hemp) varieties as “marijuana.”  Hemp was grown commercially (with increasing governmental interference) in the United States until the 1950s. It was doomed by the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which placed an extremely high tax on marijuana and made it effectively impossible to grow industrial hemp…

While Congress expressly expected the continued production of industrial hemp, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics lumped industrial hemp with marijuana…

Because of its low lignin content, hemp can be pulped using less chemicals than with wood…

It is naturally resistant to most pests, precluding the need for pesticides. It grows tightly spaced, out-competing any weeds, so herbicides are not necessary. It also leaves a weed-free field for a following crop…

Today it is clear that these beginnings of “the war on drugs” were pushed into being by the newspaper, cotton, and petroleum industries, all of which had much to fear over being competitive with hemp…..

Finally, a word of wisdom from our founding father…. “Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere.” — George Washington 1794

 

 

 

 

There’s A Storm Coming…..

I guess there is a storm coming.

Who Pays For Your Senator?

Campaigns Cost… Do you know where your Senator is?  In regards to campaign donations?  Chris Coons is expected to run unopposed even thought “Craigslist” has a help wanted ad for someone to run against him…  lol.  Desperate times call for desperate measures…

So…. who owns Chris Coons?

First the overview.  Since 2009 he has raised $7,684,608; he has spent $4,831,183, and has on hand $2,853,426 as of the last report 12/31/13….

His top contributor is  Young, Conway et al…. at $113,550 from individuals, not a PAC.  The next four in decreasing order with their amounts are: Skadden, Arps et al.. (international lobbying group) $86,000; Comcast (Aha!) $59,200; Morris, Nichol’s et al. (all individual; no PAC) $50,800; WL Gore and Assoc. (as expected) $47,200….

When categorized by industry, his top five contributing industries are as follows…. Lawyers/Law Firms, $1,289,984;…Leadership PACs, $446,900;….Lobbyists, $331,202;……Securities & Investment, $264,300;….Pharmaceuticals/Health Products, $212,950…..  The very people from which he campaigned to protect us against….

Currently for this election cycle, his campaign funds are 50% higher than the average so far collected per Senator.

	Individual Contributions  – Small Individual Contributions – Large Individual Contributions	$4,899,587 $668,274 (9%) $4,231,308 (55%)	(64%)
	PAC Contributions	$2,383,213	(31%)
	Candidate self-financing	$0	(0%)
	Other	$401,808	(5%)

His balance is two thirds individuals and one third PACs.  However his contributions from the 99% of Americans amount to only 6% of his total.

If he ever has to choose between your interests and those of his contributors, you have only 6% pull of his heartstrings; the one percent has the other 94%…..

And this was from one of the …. good ones…

Why ONLY Democrats Can Move Us Forward….

(and Independents (including Libertarians))

There are hundreds of reasons.  The major one history…. This one is a small, insignificant one, but added to the heap of others it provides amazing clarity…

“Democrats are seen an more willing to work with the other party, by a margin of 52% to 27%.

Take ten random people and line them up….  5 of those now see Democrats as the more willing to work with the other party.  3 of those see Republicans as willing to work.  2 others are on the sidelines waiting to see what happens…..

Add those 2 to the Democrats 5, and you have a super majority that can pass legislation without worrying how it helps or hurts the other party.   But add those 2 to the Republican side, you at best, will get stalemate, at 5 vrs. 5…….

Meaning that there is only one way to go. Swear not to vote for a Republican, ever, and if you are a Conservative, go out and find a Conservative democrat.  Trust me, they are out there.  As one looks across the Democrat party today, one sees much complaining that Democrats from conservative districts, are too conservative….  

Voting for a Democrat will never hurt you or the nation.  Voting for a Republican does, every time they win an office….  Don’t feel sad; they brought it upon themselves…. 

(This is not some political spew; it is a thoughtful rendition of the reality faced by America today. If the roles were reversed, I’d be championing the other party.)