Random Thoughts for Christmas in Russia

I would like to wish our overseers in Russia, a Merry Russian Christmas.  I know that you guys are basically change of our Executive Branch so I hope that your Christmas wish for your servants in the United States will be that you do not force us into a war in 2018.

My suggestion for how the Golden Globes to address the sexual harassment in Hollywood is to implement a 7 second second delay on tonight's broadcast so that we can have some honest open and graphic discussions.  Then ask either Samantha Bee or Sarah Silverman to dress as General Patton to deliver the message.  Put one of them in front of a giant American flag and have them give those gathered and those watching a manifesto of the new state of affairs. General Silverman or General Bee could say, there is no more casting couch mentality.  No gender inequality in pay will be tolerated and the next Harvey Weinstein will be dealt with in a much more violent manner to match the demoralizing and harm caused to women in the creative arts.  Women in Hollywood will form a commando squad who will receive tips from actresses, behind the scenes movie makers, and anyone working in the television or movie industry.  These women will show up in the middle of the night and remove abuser's weapon of choice: their male dignity.  They will make sure that the punishment fits the crime, but they will deliver some Marcellus Wallace of Pulp Fiction type justice.  A Women's Equalizer force or Star Chamber will beat some sense into these guys or remove some body parts until the message is received.

There was an interesting show about Puerto Rico called the Profit on CNBC. The show traditionally focuses on a guy, Marcus Lemonis, investing in struggling businesses with his own money and trying to turn it around.  I have no idea why he repeatedly went to Puerto Rico to check in on the disaster, but it was a good show.  He talked to the people focused on the failing infrastructure and he got outside of San Juan.  I guess Puerto Rico is a failing business so this makes sense.  He also gave many suggestions for how to help.  The best was to see the guy from Iowa and his restaurant, The Marigold, come back after the disaster.  He was flooded out and it practically destroyed his will to go on as a small business owner.  Lemonis talked to many who gave up on the island and were relocating to the mainland.  The owner of the Marigold had invested so much in the business and spent weeks trying to get it back up and operational to provide an income to the 31 employees.  Good show check it out.  The full episodes are posted with a three week lag.

Why doesn't Congress give up the ghost and go to 2 year budget cycles so they can spend more time begging for money, golfing and driving around in their SUVs touring the destruction they have ignored.  Every year they pass continuing resolutions and they really need more "executive time" in their schedules.

That was an amazing interview on CNN with Stephen Miller--the man recognized as the current holder of the Neidermeyer-Killed-by-His-Own-Troops award.  It took an incredible amount of restraint for Jake Tapper to not whip out a ruler, rap Miller on the knuckles and send him to the CNN timeout corner.  It was interesting to note that he did have to be escorted out of the building.  But the most amazing aspects of the interview was how noted White Nationalist, xenophobic Steve Bannon Jr. had to publicly disown his own mentor.  Miller did not answer the question about how Bannon had brought him into the administration.  Sure, Lewendowski had hired him so therefore had the most to do with his hiring, but without Bannon there is no Miller.  It is the height of hypocrisy to mention CNN mistakes for which they apologized while not mentioning the nearly 2,000 lies and misstatements by the President for which he has apologized a grand total of zero times.   Tapper could have taken the rest of the hour to just list the misstatements including inauguration crowd size, good people on both sides, stable genius, repealing Obamacare, no Russian collusion, creating the most jobs, and on and on and on.  This was a golden moment for the impeachment video being compiled for a House Judiciary Committee in January 2019.

Strange that the Narcissistic Personality Challenged President did not recognize that most of America was mocking him with his "awards to the fake media."  He has delayed release of these "fakies" because of the level of "interest."

"I know the reason that you talk behind my back
I used to be among the crowd you're in with
Do you take me for such a fool to think I'd make contact
With the one who tries to hide what he don't know to begin with."
Bob Dylan

by Brian Davis

Another Historic Day in the Recovery of Puerto Rico

For some reason this morning, the President of the United States woke up to attack Puerto Rico and the state of their infrastructure and history of debt.

I have no idea what brought this on after his political rally in Pennsylvania and the fawning interview by a Fox News host last night.  He must have been watching a local Sinclair right wing broadcast according to Slate Magazine. "It was under these circumstances that President Trump cited Sharyl Attkisson, host of the public affairs show Full Measure With Sharyl Attkisson on the right-wing media network Sinclair Broadcast Group, in threatening to pull support out of Puerto Rico." While this is wrong or a simpleton's look at a complex problem, this is certainly not the time to express concerns about debt when people are dying.  This is like the plantation owner complaining that his slaves did not pick themselves up by their boot steps to create a cotton gin for themselves.

The Governor of Puerto Rico who has spread bad information and has not stood up for his people had this passive aggressive response.

 

The extremely weak US Representative from Puerto Rico was even more passive with a reminder of the Vice President's words to the people of Puerto Rico:

Both the Governor and the US Representative Jenniffer Gonzalez Colon praised the President when he came to the island during the public relations rally that featured the infamous throwing of the paper towels.  I guess their sucking up to the leader of the free world did not work very well.  

Vanity Fair had a different take on this controversy.  "To clarify, that‘s the president of the United States (1) doubling down on his claim that, really, the commonwealth brought this on itself; (2) suggesting that, despite the fact that nearly 90 percent of people are still without power and some may be drinking from Superfund sites because they don’t have clean water, the federal government is about ready to wash its hands of the situation; and (3) implying that the people of Puerto Rico are pulling a fast one on him, trying to take advantage to extract more aid than they really need"

From the Washington Post, House Speaker Paul Ryan said: "We're in the midst of a humanitarian crisis," Ryan said. He added, "Yes, we need to make sure that Puerto Rico can begin to stand on its own two feet. … But at the moment there is a humanitarian crisis has to be attended to and this is an area where the federal government has a responsibility, and we're acting on it."  Philip Rucker and Ed O'Keefe of the Post also did a good job contrasting the tweets with what the President and Vice President said last week, "Trump himself made a similar promise, saying in a Sept. 29 speech, “We will not rest, however, until the people of Puerto Rico are safe.” He added: “These are great people. We want them to be safe and sound and secure. And we will be there every day until that happens.”

The vocal Mayor of San Juan, Carmen Yulin Cruz was more pointed in her response to the President's tweet storm:

Poor HUD Secretary Ben Carson was previously scheduled to appear before Congresswoman Maxine Waters today in a hearing when his boss sent out these horrible tweets.  He was confronted with her wrath over the "abandonment of Puerto Rico," and was forced to pledge that he would not abandon the island.  This came on the heals of a report from the Virgin Island which showed a public housing property that did not have any walls left and the residents said that no one from HUD had been to the site after three weeks.

More rough times ahead for Puerto Rico if they have to deal with indifference and racism from the Executive Branch of Government.  The only one who seems to be speaking truth to power is Carmen Yulin Cruz.  In other news, Mayor Cruz was not selected as the next Secretary for Homeland Security unfortunately.

Brian Davis

Media on Puerto Rico Recently

Two local stories about our odyssey 

Plain Dealer wrote about our being trapped on the Island.  Why are people so horrible in the comments section...why does the PD allow anonymous comments?

Local Cleveland WEWS TV 5 did a nice series of stories on the failures in the Puerto Rican disaster response. 

A Southern Indiana newspaper has been covering the story as a result of my contacts at the National Coalition for the Homeless.  They began collecting items last week when they first heard about the issues.

Here is the story of the San Juan Mayor demanding action.  The Guardian has been doing some good reporting on Puerto Rico and here is a good story about the Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz.

This is a heartbreaking story of an uncle who passed away after trying to survive in Puerto Rico.

The New York Times did a story about how difficult it is to get off the island, which I can say was real.  Did you know that the San Juan airport is privately owned and was not fully functional for 16 days after the hurricane?

Finally, a nice column about the relationship between the US and Puerto Rico and how the President has no clue..

by Brian Davis

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.