Senate Uses Trump Chaos to Relax Regulations on Coal Slag and Bribery of Foreign Officials

Senate Uses Trump Chaos to Relax Regulations on Coal Slag and Bribery of Foreign Officials

The recent actions of the Senate allowing rules promulgated around previously passed laws to be overturned with 51 votes and prevents the agencies from taking any action to assure that the spirit of the law is upheld is very very discouraging. This week they overturned a law that makes it illegal for Oil Company executives to bribe foreign officials and to keep Coal companies from dumping their slag into clean rivers.

There is a growing number of people who are suggesting that many of the controversial actions of Trump and Bannon are intended to create a diversion while they make sub-rosa changes like this that most Americans would find highly objectionable.

First Rodeo

Violence in Protests

Violence in Protests
by Wayne King

Violence in protests is exactly what Steve Bannon and the other racist, xenophobic AltRight gang want. Even though the incidents represent a very small minority of the people who have been speaking out against the Trump administration or the AltRight forces their actions reflect on the rest of us.

Steve Bannon and the AltRight forces are attempting to create as much chaos as they can with the hopes that they can drive a wedge between Americans the way Richard Nixon's administration did. Bannon and his ilk thrive on chaos and anger.

The good news is that we have been here before. We know that when Americans joined together against the Vietnam war - instead of fighting with one another - we stopped the war and the unity of the nation led to years of tranquility and prosperity. It was not without its challenges but between the Presidency of Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan, George Bush (1) and President Clinton the country went through a generation of peace and prosperity.

We need to seek common ground and speak out against violence. The example we set for our kids and our fellow Americans can turn the tide quickly.

Ripple of Hope Poster
Includes a quote from Bobby Kennedy's famous Ripple of Hope speech
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A Leadership Moment Presents Itself

A Leadership Moment Presents Itself
by Wayne D. King


There will be many of my friends and allies who will find reason to disagree with me on this and I readily confess that I find it hard to swallow myself but I think the nomination of Neil Goresuch to the Supreme Court offers an opportunity - as Michelle Obama would say - "to go high" and achieve more than a pitched battle would achieve.

I know, I know, the bad taste of what the Republicans did to President Obama and Merrick Garland - and to the country and constitution is still strong. My own first reaction was that we should give them a taste of their own medicine but having reflected on this a bit more I have a different idea.


We have a powerful teachable moment presenting itself to us. Democrats on the Senate panel questioning Judge Goresuch can spend their time grand standing for the base or they can ask Judge Goresuch to help them analyze what happened with Judge Garland and how the country might avoid ever falling into this trap again.

I don't delude myself into thinking that we can get an apology from Mitch McConnell for putting party before country but we can ask him to do so, over and over, and over until the American people get the message - The Republican party is willingly playing partisan politics in even those moments where our greatest ideals are under threat.

The Republicans are expecting the Democrats to come out with guns blazing knowing that they have all the advantage. Its to their advantage to have the Goresuch hearings leave the American people shaking their heads in disgust and expressing their disdain for the entire lot of them.

On the other hand, if Democrats embarrassed them with a display of forgiveness, patriotism and a genuine concern for bringing the country together, The Republicans will be caught flat footed and Democrats will be able to keep their powder dry for a battle that can be won.

Goresuch is quite likely to be a judge very much in the style of the man he will replace in both temperment and philosophy. His philosophy aside, every indication is that he is fully deserving of the honor of being chosen and will acquit himself well as a member of the nation's highest court.

There is really nothing that can be done to right the wrongs of the Garland debacle. The best we can hope for is a moment of "Truth and Reconciliation" where the guilty party admits their crime against American ideals and the constitution and the American public gets to see the difference between Democrats who love their country and Republicans who love their party.

Ripple of Hope Poster
Includes a quote from Bobby Kennedy's famous Ripple of Hope speech
Click here to purchase the poster

Staring Down the Barrel of a Trade War

Regular readers of my policy commentary here or on my Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1007197659) will recognize that I believe that both Bernie and Donald Trump are wrong about trade agreements and the path we are currently on is alarmingly similar to the path that led to the Great Depression beginning with the Smoot Hawley act that created tariffs on goods from other countries and set off a trade war between the US and many countries with whom we did business.

This is not to say that we can't do a whole lot better at crafting trade agreements, but to take the simplistic approach of blaming the loss of jobs on trade agreements - ignoring for example the much more powerful effects of technology causing the replacement of human labor with robots and software.

We would be far better served by an effort to better understand the forces at work in our economy and the world economy and working to develop MORE trade agreements that reflect those changes. 

We are all well aware that change is the rule in our world and the speed with which change occurs increases dramatically with each passing year. Why would we want to apply 1920s ideas to the problems of the 21st Century? They were disastrous then and only likely to be more disastrous today.

Right now it appears that the US is deeply divided along classic lines of liberal vs conservative ideology but If that is the case (and I contend that it is NOT the case) this is merely the early rumblings of a divide that is built around an entirely new paradigm.

The new ideological divide will not be liberal vs. conservative; it will be centralization vs decentralization. I believe that we are watching the early quakes in the final stages of the meltdown of BOTH Classic Capitalism and Communism and the birth of a new paradigm where successful nations lead the way toward economies built around principles that embrace the power of blending economics principles and social collaboration to craft "new" definitions of work and what constitutes a meaningful life.

I am not a utopian. I don't suggest that these changes will be simple, easy or painless. Like any other social and economic revolution they will be painful, jarring and confusing at best.

A trade war that ignores the lead for us to lift all boats in this new world would be the worst thing we could do.

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A Suggestion for Covert Sanctions Against Russia

The actions by the OBama administration including the expulsion of individuals directly involved in the hacks that were intended to influence the outcome of the US Elections are a good start and effectively "Name and shame" some of the primary culprits, including Putin directly.

In addition to the public sanctions the President has said that some covert actions will be taken as well. My suggestion is that among those sanctions we include a hack of emails of individuals involved in the doping scandal of Russian Olympic athletes. Particularly if we can make public evidence that the Russian Government was actively involved in the doping campaign and provide the evidence needed to make the case for a long-term suspension of all or most of the Russian Olympic team, other high level athletes and their coaches.

There are few things more important to the Russian psyche than their International athletic prowess. To have the extent of the government complicity and that of their nationally acclaimed athletic coaches and athletes revealed would give the International Olympic Committee the evidence needed to sanction Russia much more severely than the virtual slap on the wrist that they have gotten to date.

I'm not an expert on hacking but I am betting that this would be a relatively easy hack and the odds that the leadership within the secret cabal that orchestrated the doping of athletes would be arrogant enough to have openly communicated among themselves by email.

-wdk

Russian Meddling in Election Calls for Serious Treatment

http://www.nytimes.com/…/us/obama-russia-election-hack.html…

I am saddened beyond measure by this. I believe that this is an existential crisis for the American idea.

Sadly there is no way to rectify this that will not create more problems and worse ones. Once the decision was made to release the Comey letter about HRC's emails the Republican leadership - who were informed about the Russian meddling should have done the same with this information. At the same time both Republican and Democratic leaders should have raised the alarm about Russian meddling in the election. They should have trusted the American people to cast their vote with all of the information. By not doing so, in my opinion the Republican leadership is guilty of complicity with the Russians if not Treason by default.

We must freeze the results of the election and clear the air by getting to the truth as soon as possible. A commission comprised of equal numbers of Republicans and Democrats - people who are beyond reproach. If I were President I would choose a former Supreme Court Justice like David Souter to lead the commission and stress to the members that this was the most important moment of their lives and an existential challenge to the American idea. The slightest wiff of partisanship will consign them to the same ash heap that Benedict Arnold occupies.

There can be no change to the outcome of the election because to allow this would surely allow the partisans to derail the process. We will have to live with the fact that the Russians succeeded in affecting the outcome of ONE election to assure that they are NEVER able to do so again.

Rebuilding a Quality of Life Vision for All Americans

by Wayne D. King

Secrets of the Patriot

It could be said that this image represents both sides of Tuesdays election. It was President Kennedy who said "It is far better to light a candle than to curse the darkness." We have a lot of candles to light together because it won't be long before the American people realize that both sides have sold them a bill of goods and become mired in the past - failing to recognize that the world is shifting beneath our feet and we must become the agents of change or we will surely become its victims.

Here's my brief five point plan for a good start. Some of it probably will be seen as radical but the times call for bold ideas.

1. Raise the minimum wage to $15.00 over a reasonable period of time. This is the easy one but we need to give working people a living wage.

2. Begin the process of instituting a Guaranteed Annual Income for every American. We can start this with a pilot to test the viability of this concept. However, there is no questioning the fact that wages are falling, largely as a result of globalization and technology displacing workers. This is only going to get worse no matter how much Politicians bark about bringing jobs back home. We need to find a new way to give Americans a good standard of living in a world where marginal costs continue to decline toward zero and a good standard of living will need to be defined by more than the size of a paycheck. This will have to be funded by the 1% but they will understand the need for it. This will be the most controversial of my 5 points but it is coming.

3. Institute a National Service requirement. Every young American required to choose either the military or national/humanitarian service. When the children of the wealthy sacrifice side by side with young men and women from the inner city and rural poor communities we will begin to understand one another and develop shared hopes and dreams.

4. Guarantee a debt-free College or Trade School education for every American who wants one. Good public schools should not benefit at the expense of good private schools after all public schools already have the support of the taxpayers.

5. Institute a Medicare for all Health Care system. Medicare is one of the nation's greatest success stories. There will still be a two tiered healthcare system in the US but the vast majority of Americans will be guaranteed healthcare as a right.

All of these things begin to recast our definition of "quality of life" where certain basic needs are met and beyond this each of us has the opportunity to build a life around both traditional work and commerce or sustenance from within the sharing economy.


Secrets of the Patriot
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The Draft Horse Poster

The Draft Horse Fine Art Poster