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

The Down Side of Permanent Supportive Housing

It was a jarring set of articles that appeared in the Cleveland Plain Dealer this week.  On the same day, that homeless social service providers were proclaiming victory over long term homeless by the year 2020 in Cleveland, there was the discovery of the death of two homeless people in the snow.  If only the two had lived to 2020, there problems would have been solved!  How can anyone say that they are within two years of solving long term homelessness on the day that two of our friends are found dead on the streets?  I view this in much the same way as I read the October headline from Russia proclaiming that they will defeat ISIS and declare victory in Syria by the end of 2017.  Both are propaganda efforts to bolster an embattled public leader with no basis in reality.

Then on Friday December 15, WCPN-FM with a couple of Cleveland.com executives on the panel took up the public relations effort by proclaiming how great these Permanent Supportive Housing units are in the community never mentioning the deaths on the streets.  How much would you wanna bet that if these properties were being proposed in Shaker, Pepper Pike or near one of these reporters homes they would be screaming about how they are untested, unproven, too great a risk and will destroy the neighborhoods?

I put together this on the weekend and then Mike McIntyre and the Sound of Ideas on Monday December 18 featured about 20 minutes on this same topic.  Mike tried to provide a much better presentation of the issues compared to the cheer-leading done by the Plain Dealer and the Friday news roundup.  He still only featured three advocates of the program who had benefited from this policy in Enterprise Community Partners, FrontLine's CEO and the main funder in the Sisters of Charity Foundation without any skeptic.  All three are really good people, but they are pushing a concept that they do not seem to recognize that there are winners and losers with Permanent Supportive Housing.  The winners are the agencies that hooked their wagon to this experiment and the 20% of the homeless population and the losers are the rest of the homeless population and the majority of homeless service providers who are struggling to stay in business.  The million dollar question is on balance is the community better off with Permanent Supportive Housing?

McIntyre asked good questions, but did not get good answers from these guests who were selling a product.  Mark McDermott saying we don't want to pit providers against each other may be a hope it is certainly not the reality with 450 shelter beds disappearing over the last 10 years  They treated Ann from Lakewood who was housing her disabled adult children nicely with their words, but in reality they were saying, "You are on your own until you have had enough of them and force them out of your house and they survive outside for one year."  Basically, this $130 million dollar collaborative is busy serving 800 people in the community and does not have the money or time to serve the 30,000 people who need their support services, housing assistance and a pillow inside on a cold night. In my opinion, these programs saved hundreds of lives and we at least built some housing in the community, but the advocates have over-sold Housing First as some utopia solution to homelessness.

A quick run down on the virtues mentioned in the PD article and the two WCPN radio shows:

• They do not require people to cure themselves before participating. This is a huge improvement over previous shelter/housing program policies.
• In Cleveland, they are beautiful units that are an asset in any community. (How to compare these PSH units to 9,000 abandoned properties in Cleveland?)
• They set a goal back in 2002-4 to build 1,000 units to end long term homeless, and they are on track for this goal. 
• They identify these statistics which appear to show how successful they have been. (There is no academic or even media scrutiny of these stats).
• It was mentioned to be good social policy "to get them off the streets." (They are us!)
• One positive in the PD story was that they did not use the offensive phrase "chronically homeless" like it was a disease.  Joe Frolik could not avoid using this offensive language.
• All the services come to you in these apartments to stabilize the individual in order to move the formerly disabled individual into permanent housing without all the services.
• Frolik mentioned that this was based on research out of Philadelphia and was pushed extensively by the GW Bush administration with the "compassionate conservatism" propaganda. This "research" claimed that 20% of the population were using 70% of the resources for homeless people.  
• The economics work because the $131 million we spent saves the community $6-7 million a year. Just for clarification it will take 18 years to get the money we spent back on the money we spent to date, which will not include the on-going maintenance and social service cost.  So, in reality, the public will never re-coup the money we spent on these housing programs.  
• Chris Quinn believes that this is the replacement of the closed down asylums from the 1970s, but he also said that this was "solving of homelessness" forgetting the qualifier "solving long term homelessness." 
• The moderator of the WCPN, Rick Jackson, mentioned Councilman Matt Zone championing that this is a model in the United States and is highly successful "a feather in our cap."
• Mark McDermott of Enterprise mentioned that we need an overall affordable housing strategy, but did not mention that we are no closer to that and in fact we have lost ground over the previous two federal administrations.
• The State of Ohio has come on board to help invest in this strategy identified by Frolik as a "remarkable programs that has had bi-partisan support."
• The County was given much praise for all the funds and work they are doing to serve the population on the Monday WCPN program both with HousingFirst and the shelters.
• These are safe places with 24 hours of services and security to monitor who comes and goes within the buildings.  (Something which the better shelters also have by the way.)

I will give the other side of the story below.  I wish the media would not just accept the research, and statistics without question.  Where is the push back and the skepticism?

"Once upon a time you dressed so fine
Threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People call, say, "Beware doll you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you

You used to laugh about everybody that was hangin' out
Now you don't talk so loud
Now you don't seem so proud
About having to be scrounging your next meal

How does it feel?
How does it feel?
To be without a home
Like a complete unknown
Like a rolling stone"
    by Bob Dylan

Here are the points that you never hear in this public relations campaign to push Permanent Supportive Housing:

• In my opinion, the research out of Philadelphia was flawed by arriving at a solution and then trying to build stats around that outcome.  In addition, the researcher in Philly benefited from this research by then becoming a consultant for cities to implement this strategy.
• The statistics are based on a one day count that takes place in one of the coldest weeks of the year in Cleveland.  It is tough counting people outside, and much easier to count people inside while sleeping in a shelter bed.  We lost 450 shelter beds over the last 10 years in Cleveland making it more difficult to count homeless people.  Besides these barriers to counting, there is also the reality that can one day be extrapolated to an entire year?  As an example, let's say the average temperature on January 23 was 22 degrees in 2017 while it was 17 degrees on January 23, 2016 does that mean that we have a 5 degree rise in temperature for the year 2016 compared to 2017?  It is absurd to compare one day to mean anything other than the number of homeless on one day.  It is useless information and should not be used for any purpose other than recycling. This is especially true when so many beds are closing every year.  It was not like these beds were sitting empty and these beds were wasted in our community.    
• Anyone who looks at this objectively has to see that this was a way to cut funding during the Bush Administration.  It was not like they came up with a good idea and found new money to experiment with this housing options.  When this started 80% of the dollars went to emergency and transitional programs in our community.  Now, 80% of our funds goes to Permanent Supportive Housing and only 20% goes to emergency services.  Transitional Housing was eliminated and the federal funds remained the same except one year of stimulus funding.
• These are people who are in housing and yet we are spending homeless dollars on these programs.  We lost 450 shelter beds over the last 10 years which makes it very difficult to serve the emergency needs of a family locally.  Remember, the PSH program is only for long term and disabled single adult individuals which are only 20% of the total population.  Our only strategy for serving homeless people caters to only a small number of the population.  The 80% are told to go find their own solutions or wait 5 years on an affordable housing waiting list. 
• The 1,000 unit goal is still not realized, but that had no basis in fact. It was pulled out of the air and did not take into account the assault on affordable housing during the time of constructing these units.  It also did not take into account the foreclosure crisis or the elimination of emergency services.   The Bush Administration while championing Housing First was at the same time starving the beast by trying to play games with affordable housing funding.  We have not created affordable housing for decades except for PSH and senior housing while we lost units because of age and financing.  The Obama administration was digging out from the recession and then faced sequestration which only added to the loss of housing for low income Americans. 
• Remember, this housing in Cleveland is largely for single adults with a disability.  It is not for families or even couples.  If you stay on a couch or with family or in a motel, you are not considered homeless. 
• There was mention that only two other cities had solved long term homeless which is a good talking point, but in reality is just spin.  No city has or will solve long term homelessness, because in spending all of its money on the problem they have created families, young people and other populations who became long term homeless during the time we were building all this housing.  There is no doubt that this has contributed to a decrease in the number of people who sleep outside, but they should not oversell their accomplishments.  There were plenty of other things that contributed to a decline in the number of people who sleep outside including some amazing people like Jim Schlecht and Toni Johnson working on this issue.  It is not just the buildings get built and poof there is magic the population declines. 
• It is not true that this is unique to Cleveland or that we are doing this better than other communities.  We are following the Dennis Culhane playbook because we are paying a lot of money to his Philadelphia consulting company to follow that playbook. 
• It is great that all these services come to these facilities to offer help, but the same was true of transitional housing and that was much cheaper for the community.  The average transitional shelter bed turned over twice a year, while the 700 units of PSH are housing and do not turn over.  These are great programs, but should have funded these projects with all new money to add to our tools of serving the homeless population.  Instead, we eliminated many programs to fund the HousingFirst initiative.  
• We also had no idea that we would create new sectors of homelessness because we are focusing all of our money on one very limited population.  There are families that are spending more and more time on the streets.  There are more seniors facing homelessness and we have had to do all kinds of contortions to be able to serve homeless youth that we finally recognized as being a problem.  
• During the time of building HousingFirst units, we have made it much more difficult to be defined as a homeless person. How do you prove that you have lived in 45 different street corners/abandoned buildings/couches and doorways over the last three years?  Now you have to accumulate 1 year of homelessness over the last year in order to qualify.  Also, any time spent in a basement couch does not count as homeless.  While the school district is struggling with huge numbers of families, the County is proclaiming success with the Housing First.  It is like they are throwing paper towels out to the homeless population with this story.  
• How can every other system be stressed under the pressure of the opioid overdose epidemic except the homeless system which is on the verge of solving long term homelessness?  
• The economics of this strategy does not work.  I believe that the community saves even more than the $6 to $7 million mentioned on the radio, but they are not saving homeless dollars.  The money saved is in the criminal justice system, mental health centers, and the emergency room.  The homeless shelters and social services will not see a dollar of those funds.  The MetroHealth system will not say, thanks for your help with housing Joe Smith who has been sleeping in the Flats for 10 years, here is the $50,000 that we spent on him last year.  
• Another economics problem is that the long term homeless are typically not using many shelter resources in the community.  For the most part, those outside and not using shelter resources, and so their moving inside does not free up a shelter bed or many homeless resources.  The long term homeless are not using the meal programs or the social services. 
• Overall, the system for homeless people is more fractured, more confusing, and less accessible before the HousingFirst initiative was created.  We have not reduced the number of people who die on the streets.  We have not reduced the overall homeless population.  We have not reduced the number of poor people in the community, and we have not stabilized the affordable housing market.  We have built 800 units of housing and placed 800 people who have huge barriers to living independently inside.  We should have done built these apartments years ago, and we should have used non-homeless money.  Think about how far ahead we would be as a community if we were able to provide for the emergency needs of families and the disabled people sleeping in Ann from Lakewood's house along with helping people who have multiple barriers to homelessness.  

by Brian Davis

Laws that Need Changed at the Federal Level

There are so many things that have happened over the last year that we thought could never happen in the United States.  It prompted me to try to come up with "to-do list" for when the sanity returns to America.  These are legislative actions or policies that will need to be corrected when there are people who care about solving problems back in elected office.

1. If you want to run for President of the United States, you must release your complete tax return for the last 5 years to be on the national ballot.  When you file for any Presidential primary, you must hand over your tax returns to that state and that Secretary of State will publish those for all to see. 
2. The Logan Act is punishable by 5 years in jail if you attempt as a private citizen to negotiate with a foreign country the United States foreign policy including in the period of time before taking office.  Also, receiving money or information (which is a commodity and has a value) from a foreign government during a federal election is illegal. A candidate must report information or any other donation from a foreign entity to the FBI.
3. A President needs to put all his investments and businesses into a blind trust while she serves the United States to avoid problems with the emoluments clause of the Constitution. 
4. Voting is the fundamental basis of democracy and every citizen has a right to vote.  States shall not put unreasonable obstacles in the way to voting.  They should automatically register every citizen and eliminate any unreasonable barrier to casting a ballot.  If the cure for keeping people from voting is worse than the illness (voter fraud) don't do it. This may need to be a Constitutional amendment to assure compliance.  Also, felons who have completed their term should vote in federal election across the United States. 
5. Federal judges can no longer be life time appointments.  They need to come back for a check-in/reappointment by the Congress every 10 years. The Senate will need to vote to reconfirm all federal judges or justices every 10 years in a timely manner. 
   
6. There needs to be a deadline for the Senate to take up a nomination for service in the Executive Branch or the judiciary.  If the Senate does not meet the deadline then that means that they are choosing not to provide advice and consent, the judge, justice or executive branch nominee takes their office.  
7. The Executive Branch must make an appointment for a vacancy in the judiciary or executive branch political appointments within two months of a vacancy.  Not filling a position in the Executive Branch is harmful to the country and is contrary to the wishes of the Congress.  
8. Guns are not a human right.  Government has a right to restrict access and there should be an extensive background check for those who want to own a gun. 
9. Anyone who wants to serve in the US Military should be allowed to if they can pass basic training.  They should be able to serve free of discrimination no matter their gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or national origin.  
10. Police are not an occupying military institution.  They are in place to preserve the peace, and any investigation of abuse or physical harm shall be investigated by the judicial branch of government not the executive branch. 
11. If you serve in the US military or the national service for two years then a public four year college is free. 
12. College debt is a drag on our economy.  If you work in a human service or public education for 8 years after not for profit college all your debt is forgiven. 
13. Incarceration should be a means to re-educate and incorporate a citizen back into society.  All policies should be designed to re-integrate a person back to again become an asset to our society in the shortest and utilizing the best practices as possible. 
14. The United States does not engage in torture.  If the United Nations determines an activity is torture then it is illegal in the United States. 
15. By the way, the United Nations is an important entity to keep the peace.  The US shall fully engage the United Nations committees including UNESCO and Human Rights committee and shall adopt the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 
16. If you violate the Hatch Act twice as determined by the Ethics office you are expelled from your position within the Executive Branch. 
17. Access to the internet is a public utility and needs to be universal. Government is encouraged to provide access to those areas in which the private sector finds the cost unreasonable.  The private sector that offers connection to the internet must operate in a neutral manner with every individual, non-profit, government entity and corporation equal. Access to the Internet is not a profit driven industry.
18. The White House is the people's house and shall be operated in the most transparent way possible with everything that is not classified as top secret needs to be released to the public including visitor logs, communication within the building, photos and information distributed within the building.
19. All information released on social media by the President is the official policy or position of the President.
20. The President shall not lie to the American people and this line should be added to the oath of office. 
    
21. A President cannot launch nuclear weapons unless there was a first strike from another country.  In order to launch nuclear weapons the full national security advisory must agree without any dissension.  
22. The Justice Department is not loyal to the President of the United States.  The head of the Justice Department and the FBI are selected by the President, but cannot be removed by the President without the 4 out of the 5 members of the legal advisory to include House and Senate Judicial Committee chairpersons, the Vice President, and the Solicitor General.
23. Corporations are not people.  All federal elections are public going forward because money corrupts the process.  If you want to comment on public policy or a candidate in the public sphere you have to disclose who is paying every dollar of that commentary in an easily accessible public place.  
24. The Federal Election Commission is totally broken and needs to be given some degree of independence from politics and some quick way to keep federal elections fair. 
25. Gerrymandering is illegal.  Independent commissions outside the political process shall derive districts that are compact, competitive and not dominated by political parties. 
    
26. All primary elections shall be open with the top two proceeding to the General Election.  Citizens should be required to vote or they would pay a higher tax rate.  The citizen should be allowed to vote for "none of the above." If none of the above gets 35% of the vote in any federal election a new election is called within 30 days with two new candidates selected that represent the party of the top two vote-getters from the primary.   
27. There should be a Constitutional amendment that the air, water, and power shall be clean and water shall be potable for every citizen.  Air, Water and Power shall not be distributed for profit by a business.  We need to work to reduce threats to polluting our natural resources not adding to that contamination--we are looking at you coal burning power plants. 
28. Our goal should be to have the Department of Peace (State Department) better funded than the Department of War (Defense Department). 
29. Tear down the walls of fear and hate that exist in our country.  Immigration is critical to the survival of the United States.  Immigrants bring new ideas, jobs, and new cultural traditions to the United States.  As a world leader, we need to revamp our immigration system to encourage the best and brightest along with the persecuted and tortured to join the American melting pot.  
30. Education and Health care are essential to a functioning democracy and both shall be considered a human right free to those living in the United States.  Private entities (non-profit entities) can administer a school or healthcare facility but cannot charge the citizen for those services.  Corporations cannot make a profit from education, power generation, power distribution or medical necessary health care. 
31.  
    
    Housing is also a human right and every citizen born or naturalized into the United States deserves to live inside.  Basic housing with privacy is a public utility that should be provided to every member of our society. Artists are important to our society and should not have to live outside to exist.  If you want more elaborate or better housing that is your right, but we should not have people living outside or in places not fit for human habitation.  This means that every county or parish in the United States needs to provide housing to its citizens or those communities cannot expect assistance from the federal government for homelessness.
32. Those disabled in our country should be provided a housing voucher, income that gets them to 80% of the poverty rate and should not have a prohibition on the amount of outside income that they can earn. 
33. Everyone should contribute a portion of their income to the Social Security system even the incredibly wealthy should give a percentage of that wealth to make the safety net secure. 
34. The Federal Trade Commission should be wrapped into the Consumer Protection Bureau with its current independence and ability to act against businesses that are harming consumers. 
35. The US should go on a two year budget cycle and the Congress members should add to their oath of office, "We will work on a fair budget process that does not involve continuing resolutions." 
36. Everything produced must be recyclable and the place that sells you the consumer item must be able to take the packaging and item back for reuse.  
    
37. Pass whistleblower protections to safeguard the publication of anonymous sources in a free press.  Government needs to be more transparent by publishing everything they generate in a timely manner to keep citizens engaged in the Democratic process.  We need to work on a process to stabilize a free and independent media without reliance on corporate or business interests contaminating or interrupting publication. 
38. Inherited fortunes are not good for democracy.  Americans should earn their wealth and then turn a high portion of that wealth back to the free society that put in place the infrastructure to be able to make that money. 
39. Corporations should pay a quarter of their profits without exceptions and without hiding those profits in other countries for the benefit of being able to sell their goods and services in a free society that features a strong infrastructure. It should be taught in school that hiding money from government is unpatriotic and cause for eviction from a free society.  I am sure that the former Soviet countries would accept immigrant from the United States convicted of hiding their wealth.  
40. Science and exploration are incredibly important to the future of America.  The federal government should fund research and should reform the patent and trademark process to encourage innovation and not stifle using lawsuits. 

I am sure that I missed critical issues and I will try to update this list.  There is a lot of work to do after a period of 20 years of neglect by the legislative branch of government.  Our society must acknowledge that government can solve problems and we the people have the power to make life better for all.  

Brian Davis

Random Thoughts for Latvian Independence Day

I have to say that I never voted for Bill Clinton either time he ran for President, but not because of his inability to control his penis or his repeated mistreatment of women.  I thought he was too corporate and conservative to win my vote. After the horrible welfare reform in his first year and the inability to reform the criminal justice system, I knew he was a failed President.  But I certainly do not think he should have resigned after the Monica Lewinsky affair. I think being only the second President in history to be impeached seemed like pretty significant punishment for his behavior and lying about that behavior.  I think that if a CEO or a boss at McDonalds who were sexually harassing their employees had to have their background and reputation dragged before a judge with three stripes on his robes to answer for inappropriate behavior in the workplace things would be much different around the water cooler. Or maybe we should try the next 200 years of female Presidents, CEOs and managers to avoid the problem in the future.

I really liked this week's On the Media called "The Reckoning"  and the discussion between Brooke Gladstone and Kathryn VanArendonk about Louis CK.  (By the way, Faux News, if you insist on pronouncing the "s" in Louis CK's name then you know nothing about him and should just shut up.)  But the discussion centered around his comedy which often condemned men, and the confusion many progressives struggle over this contradiction in his comedy.  Louis CK was constantly talking about how men were a huge threat to women and how do they still want to date men? Ms. VanArendonk said, "We thought we were listening to was a sheep wearing a sign that said 'Actually, I am a Wolf.'  It turns out it was a wolf in sheep's clothing wearing a sign that said, "Actually, I am a Wolf."  That is a really nice turn of a phrase.

I can't decide if it is good that the fake "Tax Reform Act" pass Congress to alienate even more of the Republican base or let it fail to anger the base.  Both will be bad for the country, but I can't decide which will be better for the future.  If the legislation fails, the stock market will tank causing short term pain.  If the legislation passes, so many constituents are going to see an increase in taxes while their rich friends are going to see a decrease in taxes.  Grad students, residents of Blue States, and those with large medical expenses will also be crushed.  While they see company CEOs get rich while not creating jobs and they are going to be pissed.  Both will destroy the Republican party even more, but will the Dems capitalize?

Meet the Press Interview with Rob Portman in 2014:  "Last thing we want to do is add to the debt and deficit and make the economy even worse." Here he is on Fox News in 2014:  "In other words, we have got tax revenues going up during this period we're talking about actually to historic levels. And yet because the spending so far outpaces the tax revenue, there's no way to catch up. Under the income tax, it's actually not possible to catch up with the spending that's going to be occurring in 25, 30, 35 years from now. We just got to make -- it's an obvious point to anybody who has to keep a family budget or is trying to run a small business, but we have to make that point to all Americans, that this is a problem that is going to get worse and it's going to come back not just to hurt us in our economy today, but it's really immoral to do to future generations."  Neil Cavuto interjected that the 'mainstream media' was dismissing a half trillion dollar deficit. He said, "I think it's immoral as well, sir. The mainstream media, say, only half-a-trillion-dollar deficits, we can all walk away now. And that is wrong too."  Portman responded, "And then it dramatically increases beyond that. And that, by the way, assumes no recessions, no wars, none of the kind of problems. It's a rosy scenario."  I guess the rosy scenario is only policy when Dems are in the White House.  Today, with a Semi-Republican in office we can assume no recession, no war, no natural disasters for the next 10 years.

Ohio Governor Election is wide open this year with four major Republicans in the race and then four minor Democrats wanting the job.  The big news will be when will Rob Cordray announce that he is running.  But the only Democrat on the Ohio Supreme Court made national news this week with a Facebook post in preparation for his run for the Governor's office.  (Reason number 221 to eliminate Facebook and their continued effort to undermine American values).  Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O'Neill bragged about the 50 people that he has slept with including women who were easily identified in the post.  I liked Judge O'Neill until he mis-characterized the protests by NFL players and gave up his Brown's tickets after a few African American players took a knee.  Now he seems to be making light of sexual harassment claims that are catching fire across the United States.  He should shut down his Facebook account and withdraw from the race for Governor.  He is not qualified for elected office.

The hypocrites in the Conservative Movement were exposed again this last week when it was revealed by the Washington Post that the Ohio legislator who resigned this week was alleged to have acted inappropriately with an 18 year old.  After assuring the 18 year old's parent that there would be consequences,  "Christian activist" Tony Perkins covered up the allegation that took place at a donor conference.  The Plain Dealer did some follow up work saying that Rep. Goodman was leading a secret gay life while proclaiming opposition to same sex marriage.   I hope that this puts the final nail in the coffin of Perkins' evil Family Research Council.  Perkins spoke before white supremacists, defending known philanderers like David Vitter and Donald Trump, and now covering up a sexual assault all to elect extremists.  The bottom line for all these is all around abortion and nothing else.  They are single issue voters and don't care about anything else including now pedophiles.

The Power guy in Puerto Rico was dismissed and the Army commander left even though power was not fully restored and many still do not have water on the island. Puerto Rico reached the dubious distinction of being the longest blackout in US history this week.  We are proposing adding $1.5 trillion in debt to the United States, but we are not talking about fixing Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.  The weak Governor of Puerto Rico wanted $94 billion to help bring his territory back while the administration proposed less than half that amount for all Hurricane recovery in four states.

By Brian Davis

While You Were Distracted by Shiny Objects...

While the leader of the United States was distracting you from real news of incompetence in this administration with tweets, nonsensical interviews on the state propaganda arm, and attacks on the media federal budgets are being destroyed.  This is an amazing exchange between the Honorable Representative Al Green from Texas and the alleged brain surgeon masquerading as the authority on the nation's housing policy.    The "HUD Secretary" said that he planned on $6 billion in cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but he could not answer specific questions about his own budget.

Carson tried, "Rather than go through a quiz on all the numbers..." but that did not work well with Representative Green.

Then Carson tried, "I agree with you that it is difficult to do these things..." That just made the Representative from Texas angry that Carson was answering questions that he had not asked. Green offered Carson an out by saying that he was allowed to say, "I don't know" and he would accept that.

Dr Carson then tried, "Let's just move on. I do not want to offer a number, because it is subject to..." Then after some push back from the Representative and Carson said "...because we have already talked about the total amount of the cuts." Finally, a Hail Mary, Carson asked for a cheat sheet,  "Let's hear your number..." What the hell?  What witness asks a Congressman for help with how much his own department is planning to cut?  This is insane, and Representative Green jumped on this. "Mr. Carson, you are the witness today..." Green offered the chance to ask for a lifeline. Carson said, "I do not want to open the book, and look at the numbers."

Then Green asked about Community Development Block Grant cuts, and Carson started out saying, "I want to talk about..."  Rep. Green exacerbated cut him off and said, "Mr Carson, you don't get to talk about what you want to today. You get to talk about what I want you to talk about. You get to answer the questions that I pose, Mr. Carson. That is the way it works."  Carson reverting to the 11 year old inside said, "Yeah, but I get to answer the questions the way I want to."  Green summed it up, "I am going to move on. I accept your lack of knowledge."  Green ended his questions scolding Carson for his belief that rich people need tax cuts while poor people need to tighten their belts.

It was a great five minutes of questioning for Representative Green and showed the utter lack of knowledge by DOCTOR Ben Carson and his utter lack of ability to handle the complicated housing policies.  Coincidentally, The Hill published a story today quoting Sec. Carson as saying that "People are so stupid" for questioning his abilities.

I was critical of all those who voted to support this utterly unqualified HUD Secretary, but the big issue is a $6 Billion dollar cut.  This would no doubt make many low income people homeless people.  Public housing, CDBG, and the voucher programs are barely operational today and any cut will just destroy those Johnson War on Poverty programs.  Ben Carson's performance sure seemed like contempt of Congress if there were people with spines in leadership.

Brian Davis

Non Sequitor from the Right

Senator Dean Heller's Confusion

by Max Johnson
The Corporate Party took to the airwaves this morning in response to the weekly Presidential Address with a schizophrenic message that only confuses the public.  

“The American public and businesses alike are waiting on a plan that can plant the seeds of economic growth and bolster job creation,” Heller said.

A very good start that we can all agree on.  No problem.  I am thinking, "Great, now everyone is getting on the same page here."  Then Heller goes off the deep end changing the subject dramatically.  CNN characterized it with this: "Among suggested solutions for recovery, Heller advocated a balanced budget amendment, more open rules on energy exploration and a repeal of Obama’s sweeping health care reform."  How is this helpful?  What does a balanced federal budget amendment have to do with getting people to work?  If anything any cut to the federal government will just reduce the federal workforce and increase the number of people looking for jobs.

It is like declaring an emergency at the Tom's River nuclear power plant in New Jersey after it is flooded by hurricane storm surge, and then offering a solution of opening up the Arctic Wildlife Preserve for drilling.  Yes, in 15 years, that drilling will replace the power lost because Tom's River is underwater, but in the interim the area around Atlantic City becomes uninhabitable for a century because of radiation poisoning and thousands die.  The solutions being discussed have nothing to do with the problem.  Working on federal debt while we are still in crisis makes no sense.  Energy exploration is a long term issue that will have no impact on the crisis of a lack of jobs right now.  The health care reform law is fully implemented in 2014, and so why is the party of the rich talking about that now?  It has nothing to do with a small business hiring people today.  If anything if the cost of employee health care were taken off the small businesses in America and given to government there would be a massive number of jobs created.  This is an argument for Universal Health Care and not a retreat from the pathetic reform that was passed two years ago.

These guys do not get it.  They seem to be playing for 2013 with a hope there will be a different president in office.  They don't seem to care that we are suffering now, and need immediate help.  

Good Press Conference on Friday

President Finally is Hitting All the Right Notes

by Maxwell Johnson

I thought that the President did a good job on the press conference regarding the debt limit on Friday July 15, 2011. I thought that he finally hit all the issues and the hypocrisy of the other side. He seems to be stressing the issues that brought us to this point, and a history of the votes on raising the debt ceiling in the past. Stressed that the rich are going to have to pay a little more. President Obama talked about the proposal that he put forward.

"The least I can do is to say that people who are making a million dollars or more have to do something as well. And that’s the kind of tradeoff, that’s the kind of balanced approach and shared sacrifice that I think most Americans agree needs to happen," said Obama.

Obama criticized the House resolution that does not close tax loopholes, "But if you’re trying to get to $2.4 trillion without any revenue, then you are effectively gutting a whole bunch of domestic spending that is going to be too burdensome and is not going to be something that I would support. "

"So I have not seen a credible plan -- having gone through the numbers -- that would allow you to get to $2.4 trillion without really hurting ordinary folks."

"Chuck, you have 80 percent of the American people who support a balanced approach. Eighty percent of the American people support an approach that includes revenues and includes cuts. So the notion that somehow the American people aren’t sold is not the problem. The problem is members of Congress are dug in ideologically into various positions because they boxed themselves in with previous statements," said Obama.

"We don’t need more studies. We don’t need a balanced budget amendment. We simply need to make these tough choices and be willing to take on our bases."

These are all good points. The one missing point that the President was unwilling to further muddy the waters, and that was the debt was caused by the Congress. They decided not to pay for two wars. They decided to not fund a prescription drug benefit and the "No Child Left Behind" bill. Most of the current Congressional leadership were on a drunken spending spree for the last 10 years, and now they have found religion. They have to violate their Grover Norquist doctrine or bankrupt the Medicaid, space program, education department, and Department of Interior.