Random Thoughts for the 50th Anniversary of the Tet Offensive

Last week was the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Pulitzer Prize winning photo just before the execution of the Viet Cong soldier as part of the Tet Offensive.  This marked the escalation of the Viet Nam war; the beginning of my dad's tour in country and the end of the Johnson Presidency in 1968.  The escalation of the war that would cost us the lives of over 50,000 Americans who could not find a doctor to sign a medical waiver for bone spurs in the foot.

I love NPR; and it is the background music of my life. It is public radio so really these announcers, reporters and journalists are representing our interests.  They receive some public money and rely on the public donations to stay in business.  There is no doubt that we are well represented by people like Nina Totenberg in the Supreme Court, Pam Fessler on Voting, and Laura Sullivan and her reports with ProPublica.  Each of these three have stories that made a difference from Anita Hill to the scandals at the Red Cross to Gerrymandering and the evils of ID for voting.  They have served the public well. 

One reporter who in my opinion is not pulling her weight is Mara Liasson at the White House.  She asks good questions but she also has many strikes against her. Those good questions do not turn into good stories or they get bogged down in being overly friendly with the administration.  Her biggest issue is that she also works for the biased Trump media outlet of Faux News.  Other issues include the reality that her stories are not memorable.  I can't think of one important story broken by Ms. Liasson, and I have never said, "I need to go back and listen to that Mara Liasson story again."  A quick Google search did not return one news story with her byline in the top 20 searches.  She is so dedicated to the "both sides do it narrative" that it colors her journalism.  What has gone on from the podium of the White House is so abnormal this past year, it is silly to mention previous administrations or the powerless Democrats.  At what point do you get angry and reflect that in your stories?  What do they have to do to get some passion and call out the suspicious and criminal behavior.  The White House communication lies with immunity on the airwaves of NPR.  Liasson is so prone to giving "both sides" of the story that she misses the forest for the fig leaf. Two weeks ago, every news outlet had sources to confirm that the President had ordered the firing of Mueller (even FauxNews), but NPR stated that they could not confirm the story.  What good is Liasson if she could not confirm this bombshell?  It is time to make Liasson a senior correspondent thinking of unique ways to talk about gross Thanksgiving meals and interviewing academics about the marvelous art of ancient Persia.

Speaking of NPR, have you noticed that on the local NPR affiliate WCPN the Friday news roundup show is heavily dominated by white commentators?  Yes, I realize that the host, Rick Jackson is African American and does a fantastic job, but the people who are commenting on the news are overwhelmingly not representative of Cleveland.  I went back six months in the WCPN archive to look at the commentators on the news over the last 25 Friday shows.  From July 2017 to the February 2, 2018 show, there were 75 guests (3 per show) and in all that time only 3 shows featured a member of a minority.  There was one African American in January 2018 and two times Andy Chow was a guest or 96% of the commentators were white.  Nearly every show was pretty white, older, educated, suburban and therefore came from one small segment of our society. 

There were two African Americans competing for Mayor of Cleveland during that span.  There were shooting deaths, the problems associated with charter schools, Medicaid work requirements, federal tax cuts mostly for the wealthy, using public money for improving playgrounds for the rich, and cuts to arts institutions with the cigarette tax that could be better informed with African American or Hispanic individuals who do not live in the suburbs.  I know that the audience is largely white, educated and suburban, but is that a chicken or an egg problem?  They are publicly supported with public money and donations so shouldn't they have to reflect the community they serve?  It is no wonder there is a boiling anger out in the community that white educated folks are talking down to all the rest of the population.  These announcers know nothing about the juvenile justice system for an African American teen.  They have no idea what goes on with the mom trying to figure out what is best for her kids poisoned because the only house they could afford was lead poisoned.  The white commentators cannot give a solid picture of the news if they do not understand poverty, or why kids carry a gun or the desperate hope that someone will come along to lift them out of the drug crisis in their family.  Young people, minorities, non-college educated residents of Glenville have opinions about the news and we should hear them every once in a while.

NPR did carry a story about the withdraw of FEMA food support in Puerto Rico that caused a stir because still one-third of the island does not have power.  It drew immediate condemnation especially from leaders in Puerto Rico.  In the most tone deaf statement of the year so far, the coordinator for FEMA on the island said,

"The reality is that we just need to look around. Supermarkets are open, and things are going back to normal," said Alejandro De La Campa, FEMA's director in Puerto Rico. "If we're giving free water and food, that means that families are not going to supermarkets to buy," De La Campa said. "It is affecting the economy of Puerto Rico. So we need to create a balance. "

FEMA had to back down after all the criticism, but still the idea of cutting off food when the power is out is insane.  How do people keep things cold or go to a job to earn money without electricity?  Just because you seek help from the government does not mean that you are undermining capitalism.  There is very little relationship between the two.  Everything is complicated if an island does not have the infrastructure to meet the basic needs of a population.  If a government cannot offer basic power, they owe the population at least free food and water. 

I have been trying to figure out why Mary Taylor is running for Governor.  In Ohio, Republicans are divided between the Kasich branch and the Trump core of the party.  Every Republican who got into the race at the beginning (Husted, DeWine, Taylor and Rennaci) appeal to the Trump followers of the party.  There have to be Kasich supporters who will vote in the primary.  Why is no one supporting Medicaid expansion or fake bipartisanship?  Why not try to expand the party instead of strictly appealing to the narrow Make America Great crowd?  What is the difference between the Taylor and Dewine ticket?  Why bother?

Now that I tried to get involved in the local Democratic party, I can say with first hand knowledge, they suck.  It is no wonder that people are turned off the party and Cuyahoga County does not have the power down at the Statehouse as they did in the 1970s and 1980s.  How could they not endorse one of the best elected officials in Ohio with Nickie Antonio?  She listens and tries to react.  She cares about her constituents even if they do not agree with her.  She truly tries to represent all her constituents and not just her donors or her fellow progressive Democrats.  This is the opposite of former Council President Marty Sweeney.  Does anyone remember one Marty Sweeney led initiative that benefited his constituency either at Council or at the State House?

Then the Democrats decided to not to give Kenny Yuko the endorsement blocked by John Barnes who got enough support so that the Dems will endorse no one in the State Senate vote. This is an outrage since Barnes is barely a Democrat regularly crossing the line and voting with Republicans when offered crumbs.  Barnes tried to eliminate the Cleveland Housing Court until the Plain Dealer revealed conflicts of interest.  We would be better represented by Michael Moore's Ficus tree over John Barnes.   How many good people are being turned away from participating because the Cuyahoga County Democratic party is so poorly managed?  Why doesn't substance and issues matter to the Cuyahoga County Democrats?

by Brian Davis

Puerto Rico Again Shafted by the United States

Big Surprise here, they did not make the self imposed deadline of December 15 to get 95% of the power back to the island.  In fact, they don't even have half of the population with power.  This was not a big surprise since the power company was acting against its own interest and then lost their leadership.

The real news was that the new tax act that was passed will cripple Puerto Rico for years by treating them as a foreign country, which is just strange.

"Provisions of the legislation aimed at bringing operations and jobs back to the United States from overseas would apply to Puerto Rico just as they would to India, Ireland or any other foreign jurisdiction. The result will be the loss of American jobs and investment on the U.S. commonwealth. If President Trump signs it into law, it will be a hard blow at the worst possible time," according the Washington Post.

NPR has kept on the story of Puerto Rico and they did a story today on the slow pace of recovery.  This includes the re-evaluation of the death toll as a result of the hurricane.  There is a growing consensus that the 65 who are officially classified as having died as a result of Hurricane Maria is a far under count.  It is becoming clear that the number is above 1,000 and the Governor has indicated that he is ordering an audit.

The radio program 1A from WAMU in Washington DC featured an hour about Puerto Rico including a discussion about the migration to the mainland and this new budget provision.  The guests agreed that the Congress really screwed the island.  It is worth the time hearing a very good discussion on Puerto Rico.  One guest made the solid claim that the United States colonized this island a century ago and we need to take care of our citizens in their time of need.  There was discussion of the bankrupt power company and its mis-steps.  There was mention of the fact that the President of the United States had not ever mentioned that the residents of Puerto Rico were American citizens.  One caller asked the most appropriate question, "When are heads going to roll for this on going tragedy."  People were fired after Katrina, but people are just ignoring the on-going crisis.

Refugees International issued a report criticizing the response by United States to Hurricane Maria.

Maria survivors are encountering enormous challenges navigating the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) bureaucratic and opaque assistance process and lack sufficient information on whether, when, and how they will be assisted.

They cited all things that we saw first hand with a lack of coordinating logistics and an ineffective distribution of aid. I am not sure how anyone in the administration is going to care about this.  If a report is delivered by a group called Refugee anything is it quickly deleted or thrown in the trash.  NPR did a story about this report here. 

NPR reported on the report, "Puerto Rico was especially vulnerable to a disaster like a hurricane, the group says, because of its aging population, poorly maintained infrastructure and lack of emergency management assets, like helicopters and backup generators. "In light of these known limitations," the report says, "it is troubling that it took five days before any senior federal official from the U.S. mainland visited the island."

Comparing it with past natural disasters, such as the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the group found the U.S. response lacking. In Haiti, the group says 8,000 U.S. troops were deployed to the island within two days of the disaster. In Puerto Rico, it took 10 days for 4,500 U.S. troops to arrive. Central to FEMA's problematic response, Refugees International says, is that the federal agency is designed to supplement local and state disaster response efforts. But in Puerto Rico, the group found, municipalities and the Commonwealth had "limited capacity and ability to respond."

Imagine, a largely Catholic community trying to make it through Christmas without electricity, and many of the rural communities without water. How do you justify lighting a tree with a generator or cooking a cooking a big dinner with limited power?  This is crazy that after three months there is still not basic necessities on the island for American citizens. It is no wonder that the island is clearing out, and I hope the Puerto Ricans get together on the mainland to vote as a block against all Republicans who sat by and watched this crisis slowly roll out.  

Brian Davis

NPR: I was quiet when they came...

NPR Asks for Listener Lobbying Help
by Max Johnson

The attack on funding for NPR (formerly National Public Radio which now stands for nothing) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is heating up with the Private Enterprise Party known as the GOP zeroing out CPB funding for this budget year. They have hastily created a website to battle against these cuts. This is a little late. I never heard these guys pay feature commentators to speak out when the right wing savaged other interest groups.

• The Republicans came for the "welfare queens" and NPR stayed quiet because they did not want to associate with the poor.
• They came for Public Housing but again NPR stayed quiet because no one on radio lived in public housing.
• The Republicans attacked environmentalists and those opposed to war and our reporters remained quiet because it is not our place to "take sides."
• The Republicans with the support of centrist Democrats demonized government, and we stayed silent because we were not government and only received money from the government.
• They attacked home owners who they blamed for getting involved with subprime lenders and bringing down our economy, and NPR was silent.
• The Republicans came for public employees and members of unions but I did not say anything because I feared my own employees unionizing.
• Then they came for NPR's funding and there was no one left to speak out. All of our potential allies had been devastated or were facing financial distress.

There has never been a strong voices ever on NPR speaking on behalf the 170 million listeners. They never countered the attack on government services during the Clinton administration. NPR could have employed strong commentators to correct inaccuracies regarding the federal deficit and the reckless spending of the George W Bush administration. They could have had daily commentaries about the rush to war. They could have corrected the record on a weekly basis on global warming and not allowing the fringe equal time as the mainstream scientist. They have done a poor job in calling balls and strikes in public discourse for fear of angering the extremes in our society. NPR stands in the middle of the road, and now wonder why they are getting run over by the right. Now, they are on the chopping block and they are asking for our help.

Sorry, CPB and NPR there are bigger issues to worry about including the Corporation for National Service, Public Housing, Job training programs, and access to health care. We don't have time to fight for your budget.

NPR Has Another Issue

by Max Johnson

Yesterday, corporate candidate John Kasich canceled his appearance on the vanilla Talk of the Nation show on NPR because he did not want to take calls from the listeners. There is no doubt that this make him look cowardly, but that is not news. There is also no doubt that he did not want to be confronted over the fantasy world he wants to lead the state of Ohio into if he wins. This is a world in which you can cut taxes, not cut programs, and the state will prosper. But another question is what does this say about NPR? They are certainly not known as confrontational and they do not shout down their guests. As a listener and a fan, we all appreciate this ability to have a civilized conversation.

But what does it say about Neal Conan and Ken Rudin that Kasich was afraid of listeners, but not afraid of them? My concern is that they are not asking the tough questions. I understand being fair and balanced in the real sense of the word (not the propaganda fair of Fox News). Are they allowing politicians to get away with spin in the desire to not challenge these ideas? Are they not holding these guys feet to the fire and instead talking about polls, scandals, and missteps? Do they allow the political get in the way of the science of government? I rarely hear anyone challenge some of the basic concepts of the tea party movement or the Corporate party? Here are some questions for your next segment:

• What happened to the Teddy Roosevelt environmentalism in the once honorable Republican party? (You can take out the once honorable if you want to be fair).
  
• Why are you running for an office that you repeatedly disparage and scorn? If the election is a job interview, would you hire someone who said such horrible things about the corporation that they were seeking a job with?
  
• What have you learned from the massive expansion in government that took place from 2001 to 2008 (No child left behind, prescription drug plan, the wars, homeland security, and the TARP bailout)?
  
• What specifically will you eliminate to get the budget back in balance?
  
• Can you point to a time in our history that tax cuts for the rich have actually brought more dollars to government? The last two times this was tried with W and Reagan, it resulted in huge deficits, and it turned out that it was in fact "Voodoo Economics.

I have more if you need them, give me a call, Ken.

Thank You NPR

An Open Letter to NPR:

Thank you so much for firing Juan Williams, and now we have the bonus of Mike Huckabee and other hate propagandists not appearing on the network. What a bonus. It was like you rolled a strike and the all the pins in the lane next to you also fell down. Williams should have never been allowed to appear on the television network of the Conservative Party. He never challenges the outrageous comments of Bill Kristol. He was a liberal in the Ken Blackwell mold. His commentary was never that insightful. He made us all realize how wonderful Daniel Schorr truly was as a commentator. Williams regularly made stupid comments, and it always seemed like he was a symbol on the Conservative Network and not a real person. "Look we have a black guy who can say a few positive things about Democrats every week. See we are fair and balanced." Williams never expressed anger about the destruction caused by Conservatives or their publicity arm in Fox. Both entities have done much harm to the United States and Williams never called them on the scorched earth policy.

Now you just need to deal with Mara Liasson and her gig on Fox. Time for an ultimatum: keep your job at NPR or go full time at Fox Conservative Publicity Company. Williams is claiming that "NPR was looking for a reason to get rid of me...for appearing on Fox." So, what? That is as good a reason as any to get rid of him. I support that reason. Again, thank you so much for all that you do, and thank you so much for getting rid of the two faced fake journalist.

Sincerely,

Max Johnson

PS: Here are few choices for a replacement: Robert Reich, Henry Louis Gates, Frank Rich, Dan Froomkin, Harry Schearer, Colin Powell, Geraldine Ferraro, that guy running for Governor on the "Rent is 2 Damn High" party, or William Shatner. All of these guys have more credibility than Juan Williams.

The Song Remains The Same

When is someone going to Challenge These Jokers?
by Max Johnson

Representative Tom Price of Georgia appeared on Weekend Edition with Scott Simon on September 11 to lay out the game plan for the November election for Republicans. I do not understand why the media never challenges these guys. This is the Contract with America all dressed up for the 2010s. Here are the three things that Price said was the winning ticket for Republicans:

1. Decrease spending in the federal government to provide some stability.
2. No increases on taxes on anyone. (EVEN BILLIONAIRES???)
   
3. Provide an incentive to job creators.

Price stressed repeatedly that he did not want to "punish job creators." Let's go back to the source. Here are a few of the relevant passages from the Contract with America:

1. THE FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY ACT: A balanced budget/tax limitation amendment and a legislative line-item veto to restore fiscal responsibility to an out-of-control Congress, requiring them to live under the same budget constraints as families and businesses.

5. THE AMERICAN DREAM RESTORATION ACT: A $500 per child tax credit, begin repeal of the marriage tax penalty, and creation of American Dream Savings Accounts to provide middle class tax relief.

8.THE JOB CREATION AND WAGE ENHANCEMENT ACT: Small business incentives, capital gains cut and indexation, neutral cost recovery, risk assessment/cost-benefit analysis, strengthening the Regulatory Flexibility Act and unfunded mandate reform to create jobs and raise worker wages.

Why couldn't Simon ask these questions of Price as he was spouting the party line:

1. Which specific programs do you want to cut in the federal budget?
2. Why did you not make the Bush tax cut permanent when you had all the power?
3. At what point in our history are Republicans going to call for tax increases? I mean if the thinking is do not raise taxes after just coming out of a recession then why was it the same policy in 2004 or even 1998 when we had record surpluses?
4. When do Republicans propose to fix our infrastructure, solve homelessness, get everyone in America healthcare, reduce poverty, expand access to higher education?
5. In light of financial trickery on Wall Street that led to the collapse, the poor response to Katrina by government, the food scares that caused huge egg recall, and the inability to protect the gulf coast against the oil spill, do you think that we should expand government's oversight role and provide more dollars for regulations?
6. If you support the troops, how do you intend to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without tax increases?
7. On a related issue, how do you intend to pay for the veterans suffering traumatic brain injuries in the next 30 years without a tax increase? If you truly care about our troops and this is not just a slogan for you then you would propose a way to make sure that our veterans receive the best possible care when they come back injured fighting the wars that you sent them to fight.
8. There were 18 specific pieces of legislation proposed in the Contract with America, and three were passed. The last few Congresses of the Bush Administration were called "Do nothing Congresses." So, what can you point to from the last 20 years that Republicans have done while in power that would give taxpayers confidence that they could trust you with the keys to the economy and democracy?
9. If your upcoming election strategy is "don't punish the job creators," are you going to apologize to America for denigrating the automobile bailout, which has saved millions of jobs in America?
10. Isn't the easiest way for government to generate more jobs is to create more government jobs? So, why not support a massive state budget bailout to prevent massive numbers of layoff and some expansion for mine safety, food safety, and thinning the forests to prevent forest fires in the West?

The media has to stop letting these guys off easy. In an attempt to seem balanced, they let stupidity pass. If an elected official says something stupid like "don't punish the job creators," they have to challenge them. No one is ever asked to prove it or told to stop spouting slogans. Politicians are allowed to say outlandish things like increasing taxes to the level they were in 1998 on rich people will hurt job creation, and the media isn't forcing them to prove it. The Republican party is no longer about leadership, but has become the party of slogans. "We will reduce your taxes" is not a strategy to govern.