The Passage of Times

The more with which time passes, the more one sees how some things always stay the same.

This is something unrealized by youth… I certainly couldn’t see it, though many elderly tried to project their insight into me.. I simply lacked enough background to understand.

But seeing the return of things you fought to vanquish and were once successful, as well as expanding ones knowledge-base across many cultures, times, and distances, one tends to see a larger pattern in effect that probably is conducive to our survival…

Here is how it relates to conservatives and liberals, democracy and our ultimate survival…. .

No matter who you are, when you are, or where you are, if you are comfortable in your position, you tend to lean towards conservatism… Why wouldn’t you?  It’s what enabled you to get and keep what you have… On the other hand, when you have nothing but dreams listed as your assets, you’ll insist on change, or newness, or something better than what you have.. Why shouldn’t you?  Who would want to stay in the same decrepit conditions one finds themselves when they don’t have to?

And so democracy is simply a mechanism that allows for the ebb and flow of fortunes to change policy so parity is maintained for the most part…

When a majority of people are doing better than those who are not, then keeping what is working now is best for that society as a whole.  On the other hand if it it not working, then changing ones course is better for that society.  That makes so much sense, does it not?

So being a liberal in a time of economic well being is, how should we say politely, being “very forward thinking”?… Likewise being a conservative in a time of turmoil, could be rather dangerous, being so outnumbered so… you better hope you are “well liked”….

It is rare that events outside the human experience impact us on a large scale. Most of what affects us drastically (wars, Depressions, power grabs) usually comes from mankind’s own doing:… acts where we consciously chose to go a certain route, and more or less, damned all the torpedoes that got in the way.

Today we are in a bru-ha-ha of our own making…. Most of it directly came from our choosing to go towards giving the top 1% all of our money and keeping less for ourselves… It was a conscious decision on our parts.  We elected enough Republicans to allow them to do what they told us they would do.  It was no secret. We made a bad decision.

The experiment failed.  They kept all the money and none trickled down, at least here within our borders… Our wealth actually built up China, which is great for them, but that hasn’t helped us much.

When one finds out one is losing something important, one hangs onto it harder… Which means someone has to try harder to take it away, right?… This gives insight into the harshness and lack of decorum in politics today… The ugliness we see today in Conservatives, and the hard clenching tenacity we see in Liberals, we’ve seen before in this country.  We had it in the 1820’s between the old guard wealth of the Eastern Seaboard, and the wide individualistic wealth newly available across our national heartland.  We saw it in the 1850’s as slavery hit the hot button and both sides became bitterly entrenched as support for slavery evaporated into a cauldron of gunpowder.  It only took one spark.  We saw it in the 1890’s as the capitalists grabbed up more and more companies, crushed workers rights, and the workers in cities became less and less empowered. Finally Republican Progressivism broke out of the chokehold. Then WWI flipped the scales back to big business and an investment boom followed by a Great Depression again created the necessary environment for another total sweep of old for new.  That “new” lasted 60 years until it succumbed to having been so successful so that so many numbers who had previously benefited from liberal policies switched allegiances to keep their assets to themselves… And that leads to today, where our individualistic efforts to improve ourselves simply were not enough to balance ourselves comfortably against wealth and power and we are again looking at more government interaction…

So rawness and candor have always been part of politics.  Always will be. Some things never change. (Some of us love it, btw.)

So what is happening today is that the post Republican Depression economy has made mockery out of those “traditional” Republican values and the only thing they have to hold on to power right now, is their appeal to the prejudiced.  Against this direct solicitation, Progressives continue to offer a new vision of hope to millennials, or the return to the old vision of what actually worked well for 60 years to those still alive who actually lived it.

The conservatives count the votes and know their time is numbered.  Population trends have pointed this out for many years. Which readily explains why they focus on ways and methods to limit large numbers of those voting, and have vacated all plans to appeal to new members… No surprise here.

In this election conservative policy has been reduced to stem complete annihilation of their party… For whereas they have failed over the past 16 years, Progressives have succeed across that same time. By going hog-wild on bigotry, they are using the only tactic with which they know how to keep some members in their party from flipping…

Bigotry is a “thing” unfortunately… And right now…. it is the only “thing” Republicans have to garner one single vote this November…  Unless of course, it is ….. “wild hair”…

 

Delaware Republicans Support Segregation In Sussex County

It is very simple.  If one Republican supports segregation, and the Republican Party does not expunge him from its party, obviously the Head of The Republican Party then automatically inherits the problem and becomes culpable….  But there are two Republicans doing this.  And both are the principal movers of the entire Republican Party (if not name, then deed) of Sussex County.

The only outcry from the Republican Party has been a buried press release from the head here in New Castle County, which no one read…..

That can only mean the Republican Party secretly supports segregation….

Think about it.  You are with a group of people and one starts harassing someone outside your group.  They could be liberal, gay, effeminate, Hispanic, urban, whatever. It doesn’t matter.  But that someone in your group  goes off half-cocked and bullies them n public…

What do you do, sitting there holding your beer?  Do you come to that person’s defense?  “Hey, you can’t do that to them.  You need to leave us right now,  You don’t represent us! You sicken me.  In fact, I’m going to punch my fist right through your f’n head. Then when you’re down I’m going use my new cowboy boots to grind your head into tomato paste.”   (Because if you did,  The bullying would probably stop immediately, since you were becoming  the new threat.)

But probably not.  Most likely you are going to sit there, silent, pondering all your choices, and from the outside keep a stoic face so all around you, especially that person being verbally abused, will assume you are just part of the posse, going along with the sheriff doing the abusing…  If ever later questioned why you chose not to intervene, you will say  “I’m not prejudiced. I actually like “those people”.  I don’t have a part in this fight.  Of course I don’t agree with him, but I’m not going to get into a fist fight with someone I work with…. ”

And thus, through yours and your acquaintance’s  cowardice, you allow the abuse to continue.  Someone else another day, will feel the ire, and then someone else the day later, etc….  The real problem is allowed to continue. And we all know;  it is a real problem.

So when we all are held accountable, (as to why did you do nothing to stop it), despite whatever excuse we proffer it will become obvious to us that there was indeed another choice at that time which could have been made…. We could have done something….

That is why one press release read by nobody, is not enough.  Only one action and one action alone is strong enough to send the proper message that this behavior will NOT be tolerated.  That is to permanently ban Vince Phillips and Sam Wilson from any Republican Party affiliation.  That is to public excommunicate them from the Republican Party of Delaware… That is to issue a restraining order banning Vince Phillips and Sam Wilson from any function even remotely connected to the Republican Party of Delaware…..

IF the Republican Party does not take such drastic action…. they are culpable just as you or I would be if a friend of ours started demeaning a stranger in our presence.   WE WOULD BE GUILTY TOO…..

This is why, no… as in zero… self-respecting human being should donate, volunteer, or even vote for any Republican until the Republican Party has elicited some serious cost upon the perpetrators…  Considering the moral weakness previously exhibited by their current leader, I predict that will be highly unlikely….

I further predict that segregation against the “colored people”  will be continue to be openly practiced in Sussex County because it now has the unspoken  “protection” of the Republican Party.

Finally! Relief From Benghazi

To those who’ve been  insufferable to all others… Ha, ha. Treat yourselves..   Number 37,449.

(And if anyone wants to know the next fact up the trivial ladder of relevance it is this….)

Number 37,450:  The Hittites domesticated asses, horses, cows and raised honey bees.

Why Ted Cruz, John Boehner, Eric Cantor and THE TEA PARTY Shut Down Your Government

It’s been six months since the greatest debacle ever experienced by a civilized human being, has taken place…. The Republican Party of the United States of America,fully endorsed by Charlie Copeland here in good old Delaware, shut down the Federal government over the repeal of Obamacare .  Only those close to the story knew over what they were protesting….

Here is why the Republicans closed down your government, put 700,000 government workers on furlough, and cost the economy $24 billion dollars….  They did it because:

A.   They didn’t want 315 million Americans to get free preventative care… No co-pay for flu shots, HIV screenings, prostate exams, colonoscopies, mammograms……

B.   They didn’t want 315 million Americans to benefit from new requirements forcing insurance companies tospend at least 80% of our premium dollars on our health care , or refund us back our money…..

C.  They didn’t want 315 million Americans to benefit from new requirements that insurance companies publicly justify their actions if they want to raise premiums by 10% or more…

D.  They didn’t want 315 million Americans to benefit from knowing that our insurance can now never be capped or canceled at the whim of insurance companies.

E.   They didn’t want 105 million Americans to no longer have lifetime expense caps, either through chronic disease, or corporate restrictions.

F.   They didn’t want depending on which survey you read, 50 to 129 million Americans to benefit from the Obamacare provision that eliminates all bars for coverage based on pre-existing conditions..

G.   They didn’t want those 49.4 million American current Medicare enrollees to under Obamacare now feel secure knowing that existing Medicare benefits can neither be reduced nor taken away.

H.   They didn’t want 6.1 million Americans with Medicare Part D to no longer have to go through the “doughnut hole” coverage gap.

I.     They didn’t want 4.4 million low-income adults to now have access to health insurance thanks to states implementing the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare….

J.    .They didn’t want 3.2 million main street American small businesses to be eligible for tax credits for providing health insurance to their 19.3 million employees nationwide…

K.    They didn’t want 3.1 million of America’s  young adults to get coverage because of the provision in Obamacare that allows them to stay on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26….

They wanted none of the above… When like a terrible two year old,  they couldn’t get their way,  they furloughed 700,000 Americans for  a combined total of 6.6 million days,  shut down the National Parks and Monuments thereby damaging local communities, closed down the NIH and CDC, stymied essential permits and necessary reviews, stopped import and export licenses thereby freezing trade,  froze all Federal money earmarked for small businesses, homeowners, and families in rural communities,  disrupted loans because banks and lenders could not access the Federal database, delayed $4 billion in tax refunds to American consumers, prevented all food and water from being inspected, prevented all train and plane accidents from being inspected,  stopped critical defense and other non defense research, and cost 120,000 jobs from being created those two weeks in October….. It was just 6 months ago….

All of that…. just so you would not receive any of the  above benefits from Obamacare….Oh, my, tsk, tsk.

This is election year… Still not fired up?  So what’s your real reason?  Got rocks in your head?

You Know Your Country Is Messed Up When……

You have to take a drug test to get food stamps because your employers at two jobs aren’t giving you enough hours……

But you don’t to pocket $174,000 of taxpayer money because you …. are a Congressman….

And your boss, lets you keep your job because: “Hell, Cocaine?  That’s no big deal”–John Boehner.

And Then There Were Nine….

……It was supposed to be unanimous.  Why, everyone wants education to be better.  Holding Charter Schools to higher standards was like, wait, holding the 37th best teacher school in the nation (yes, University of Delaware) to higher standards… (It’a make dem kids smarter.)  After all, didn’t the Teaching School Accountability Act just sail through the Senate unanimously, and with only two “naysayers” (see Jacques) votes on record in the House?

This time there were nine.

Nine people who put their kids before Charlie Copeland’s millions.

For those not paying attention, you may not see why they did?  “Oh, they’re just pollywogs” …you might mutter; “some people just like to make waves; the path was too smooth for them and they had to make it look harder than it was.”  But that is far from the truth.

The truth is that Bank Of America has donated part of their giant complex downtown (the 9 year old MBNA built complex) towards a charter school.  Charlie Copeland has a charter school that wants to move in.  However, “minor renovations” must be done to turn a former bank, into a Charter School.  “Minor renovations”  the investors don’t want to pay for. (see El Som, Al Mascitti, caller Ed).  So if the state passes a $5 million slush fund, one appropriated for “minor renovations”, it gets applied to the former MBNA building and the charter school can open.

A big charter school!  One handling close to 2440 students…. At well over $10,000 per student that this new Charter School will get, as it pulls from Colonial, Brandywine, Red Clay, and Christina,  it’s yearly income will be well over $24.400,000 dollars every year….  which means that the same $24,400,000  will not be going to Colonial,  to Brandywine,  to Red Clay, or to Christina.  Charter schools run a 60% profit return.  They really have few expenses.  Teachers, tests, and capital expenses.  If the state pays up the capital expenses, the remaining costs average around 34% putting the profit level at 56% or almost 60…. (60 should be achievable once settled in)…  The profit  on the new charter school will be 56% of  $24,400,000 or… $13,664,000 EVERY SINGLE YEAR!

Let’s say, over a 5 year contract, one should pull in $68,320,000 .. not top line… this is the bottom… This is what goes into Charlie Copeland’s and fellow investor’s bank accounts. over $68 million dollars in 5 years…

Now if you went to a bank to borrow $5 million for start up, and were going to get $13,664,000 back that same year every year, do you think a bank would loan you the money?  HELL,  F”N’ YEAH!  They’d literally be crazy not to.  Every bank would be fighting for a place in line just to serve you.

But why pay interest on something you can get for free?

Charlie Copeland, unless there is a revolt among those Republicans still wanting to win elections,  will be the head of the Delaware Republican Party. That means he  currently holds in his hands, the future of  8 Senators,  and 14 House of Delegates.

He needs only 3 Democrat Senators (easily bought) and 8 House of Delegates (here’s a donation for you)….  and he can write legislation which lets you the taxpayer fund his enterprise, which will make him and fellow investors richer by $68,800,000 in just 5 years….

But there is more.  Charter schools underperform in test scores compared to Public schools.  I mean how could they really match up?  They don’t have  the structure; they have to pay everything on a service basis.  They don’t have experienced good teachers; they can only get the bad ones not employed, or new ones with headlamps in their eyes.  They don’t have union support; just as a teacher finally gets decent, she gets fired for being “too expensive”.

So, for Charter Schools to work they have at the same time they go into business, start the process of tearing down public schools that have been adequate for a 100 years…  The public schools here will start losing $24 million a year.  They cut back.  As they no longer meet their performance guidelines; they get cut back even more.  More Charters move in, forcing even more public school cut backs.  The public schools barely have the money to pay for structure, much less lavish upon education.  More charters move in, and the district is forced to close schools…. Having charter schools and public schools duke it out over scarce resources, not unlike the recent movie Hunger Games, cuts our actual passing students down by almost half….

This is how Philly and Chicago and 3 years ago, Kansas City happened.  They let in large Charter Schools.  The numbers show that when Charter Schools move in, the test scores of an entire geographic area get lowered significantly. The charter schools don’t know HOW to keep them up; the public schools are too cash strapped to keep them up… True, some schools  who are allowed to attract the best and brightest, may go up, but for every one that does, far many more go down pulling the average across the city down with it…  Obviously those getting the worst treatment are Blacks, flat out they have no hope,  with Hispanics getting  the second worst deal of the century.

Delaware has been lucky so far. But as we can see from studies done on Newark Charter School,  segregation is back in full force..

We can turn this state into the educational waste land that is Chicago, that is Philadelphia, that is Kansas City…. and with the passage yesterday, under the auspices of “holding Charter schools accountable” while fixing their buildings “for free”, we appear headed down that direction.  Remember every other state who has tried doing what we proposed to do, has met abysmal failure.  Fact:  there are no successful charter stories out there. All are negative.

The good news, is that there were people in Delaware tuned in on the problem who stood up for every single Delaware child; yes they will face millions against them throughout their career, but for our children it was worth it…  Most people out of tune with politics may never realize the fear that going against the strong hands in Delaware can create. Its like looking into your open grave…   Nine people conquered that fear yesterday, and stood up for children, real children, like yours and mine, and did not kowtow to investors who will thank them campaign-time for netting them a cool, easy $68 million…..

They are:

Paul Baumbach (D)

Andria Bennet (D)

Stephanie Boulden (D)

J. Johnson (D)

Helene Keeley (D)

John Kowalko (D)

Edward Osienski (D)

Charles Potter (D)

Kim Williams (D)

Every parent needs to thank these very strong people for putting kids over Copeland.

The “In-Affordible” Health Care Acts…..

Congress is budged $1.248 billion a year… there are 52 weeks in each year… The cost of congress per week is $24 million.  (How can that be?)

Since the Tea Party entered the scene, there have been 34 votes to repeal Obama Care, all passing the House and all dying in the Senate.  These are feel good bills being proffered by Congresspeople to satisfy their most ardent critics back home.  If Congressperson “A” proffers a  bill to abolish Obamacare, … Congressperson “B” does exactly the same copy two weeks later.  Congressperson “C” then follow up with the same copy the next month.

These votes are not free.  They take time away from other duties. If this time were spent on something that would pass the Senate, all of us might be better off.

CBS estimated these bills took up an average of  2 and a half hours each.  If added they amount to roughly 80 hours or two weeks…

At  $24 million a week, these silly votes of posturing have cost the American taxpayers $48 million dollars…   $48 million would pay for 960 $50,000 jobs for a full year…

America can’t afford Republicans any more.

Republicans Are Now Laughingstocks! And How That Is Good For America

Republicans always hated the press.  The press tells the truth and truth is the anathema to Republican politics.

So when the Democrats after the War on Terror was over.  proposed to curtail some of the stringent powers which the Federal Government held over the press,  the Republicans naturally refused.  “We can’t have that”,  they screamed.  “National Security.”  What they were truly concerned about was their own political security.  A press that was not intimidated by them, could do their party harm…

The Democrats countered with this: … ‘but when it’s a Democratic President who is intimidating a Republican Press, you’ll come to your senses then”….

Lindsey Graham, the Republican icon from South Carolina, is proposing that we now pass the law he was previously against…. It protects  journalists from being investigated…. For you see, now Fox news was investigated, in his mind that changes things.

Our press, for better or worse, is a big part of the people’s hold over their government.  A press needs to be free to publish what it will, and let then public debate determine whether or not it has merit. For example. All three of these current scandals do not involve illegality. All three were accomplished completely within the law. It is because we have the press, we can know this.

At first one side publishes the accusations.  This person is guilty their headlines scream, and to a point when only one side is allowed to offer up arguments, it sort of does look like that person is guilty…  But then the other side dug up stuff too.  What they found were only the current accusations, with nothing substantial to back them.   Simple posturing, finger pointing, and nothing else.  No crimes were committed.  In fact, all the alleged activities were sanctioned by law.  If one didn’t do what one was accused of, one could have gone to jail for probably breaking the existing law…..

It is just that now that Republicans aren’t the ones in power, they don’t like the actual existing law, Even though it was them, who passed and enforced it back when they held the White House and both branches of Congress, even over the democrat’s vocal opposition..

So, now that the Democratic prediction has come true, Republicans are coming on board.

And if it protects the press and allows them to print the news, America ultimately in the end, prospers.  And that is a good thing….

So if you see a republican walking down the street, laugh hysterically at their stupidness, pettiness, and inability to think outside their box… Roll on the sidewalk clutching your sides, point at them the whole times… Get your friends to do the same…..

Then thank them, for finally coming to their senses, realizing Democrats were right all along,  and jumping on the bandwagon of Democratic policy, to do their part and help make America a much better place….

Tampering With Evidence IS A Crime In DC….. Republicans Broke The Law

It is a crime when individuals are found tamping with evidence. Tampering may include a manipulation or movement of the evidence during or after the crime. Individuals can in fact be charged with being an accessory after the fact, if they manipulated evidence in any way.

Did a crime occur in the Republican caucus surrounding Darrell Issa.

ABSOLUTELY.  Evidence was tampered…..

CBS News reported that at least two of the Benghazi e-mails that were leaked by Republicans last Friday were altered.

One of the altered e-mails was from Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes. The other altered e-mail was from U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Here’s the Republican version of the Rhodes e-mail:  We must make sure that the talking points reflect all agency equities, including those of the State Department, and we don’t want to undermine the FBI investigation.

Here’s the White House version of the Rhodes e-mail:   We need to resolve this in a way that respects all of the relevant equities, particularly the investigation.

Here’s the Republican version of the Nuland e-mail:  The penultimate point is a paragraph talking about all the previous warnings provided by the Agency (CIA) about al-Qaeda’s presence and activities of al-Qaeda.

Here’s the White House version of the Nuland e-mail:  The penultimate point could be abused by members to beat the State Department for not paying attention to Agency warnings.

BUSTED!!! 

Evidence was tampered to imply a crime.  Under all state codes this can be either a misdemeanor or a felony.  We need these investigated…  The law was broken.  Congressional Hearings are in place to get to the bottom of the truth.  They are not intended to be kangeroo courts to make up evidence that doesn’t naturally exist….

The law was broken.  Arrests need to be made… This is not about Democrats or Republicans… This is about the trust and truthfulness of the United States of America.

If Congress were run as were DC’s Schools?   Darrell Issa would be thrown out of Congress…. From the DC school manual…….

Tier IV behaviors result in off-site Suspension.
(a) The following behaviors shall be considered Tier IV behaviors:

(1) Acts of vandalism, destruction of property, or graffiti (tagging);
(2) Documented theft of school or personal property without force;
(3) Interfering with school authorities or participating in a major
disruption of the school’s operation.
(4) Tampering with, changing, or altering an official record or
document of a school;

Here is the Texas’s definition of tampering.   Darrell Issa would be in jail if this took place in Texas….

A person commits an offense if, knowing that an investigation or official proceeding is pending or in progress, he:

(1) alters, destroys, or conceals any record, document, or thing with intent to impair its verity, legibility, or availability as evidence in the investigation or official proceeding;

(2) makes, presents, or uses any record, document, or thing with knowledge of its falsity and with intent to affect the course or outcome of the investigation or official proceeding;

(3) knowing that an offense has been committed, alters, destroys, or conceals any record, document, or thing with intent to impair its verity, legibility, or availability as evidence in any subsequent investigation of or official proceeding related to the offense; or

(4) observes a human corpse under circumstances in which a reasonable person would believe that an offense had been committed, knows or reasonably should know that a law enforcement agency is not aware of the existence of or location of the corpse, and fails to report the existence of and location of the corpse to a law enforcement agency.

In Texas, this is a felony in the third degree.

The evidence brought forth a week ago that inflamed the nation, was a fabrication. “Directly it was an attempt to make, present and use a record, document, or thing with knowledge of its falsity and with intent to affect the course or outcome of the investigation or official proceeding….”

18 USC § 1001 – Statements or entries generally

(a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, whoever, in any matter within the jurisdiction of the executive, legislative, or judicial branch of the Government of the United States, knowingly and willfully—
(1) falsifies, conceals, or covers up by any trick, scheme, or device a material fact;
(2) makes any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or representation; or
(3) makes or uses any false writing or document knowing the same to contain any materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent statement or entry;

shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 5 years or, if the offense involves international or domestic terrorism (as defined in section 2331), imprisoned not more than 8 years, or both. If the matter relates to an offense under chapter 109A, 109B, 110, or 117, or section 1591, then the term of imprisonment imposed under this section shall be not more than 8 years.

In their quest to call it terrorism –and it is– the republicans just opened themselves up to a crime.

I demand an immediate arrest of Darrell Issa for breaking the law…. Full Censure by the House of Representative of this common criminal is called for immediately…..

Is Fabrication Of Emails Illegal?

Republicans took an email from the White House, restructured it, and gave it to ABC News which published a breaking story that 12 revisions had been made to the Benghazi talking points.

Is it illegal to do that?

Wouldn’t that fit under the definition of libel? Or is it legal under the Fox Doctrine that says if you are not news but entertainment, you can say or do anything you wish?