Give to your local Democratic Party.

This is a letter I wrote to members of my local Democratic Party.

It’s not even an election year and we are bombarded with donation requests from political organizations and candidates. Our budgets are stressed by rising prices, inflation, and uncertainty over tariffs and cutting of government programs. That’s why a small monthly donation is a budget friendly way to support your local DFL Senate District 46 and help us win major elections coming next November.

The money Senate District 46 raises fund party outreach, inviting more people into the party, and expands our message. A message you help create through caucuses and resolutions. It is the basic building block of democratic government. It gives money to our local candidates and because SD 46 is a democratic stronghold, we support other politically challenged districts & candidates and support our congressional and statewide candidates. It is a good investment for defending democracy and fighting corruption in Minnesota. It truly is grass roots organizing.

Democrats in St. Louis Park, Edina, and Hopkins want to support Cheryl Youakim and her endless support for education, Larry Kraft who is defending our environment, and Ron Latz keeping our cities safe with common sense gun legislation. You can support all three of these hard working Democrats with one donation to Senate District 46.

I have been giving money to Senate District 46 every month for several years through ActBlue. It’s easy to do. I ask you to contribute to this worthwhile organization. Anything you can give $5, $10, $20 monthly strengthens local democratic institutions and candidates and provides a stable budget for community outreach.

If there was ever a time to support your party financially, now is the time. We see our democratic institutions crumbling under the Trump regime. Christian Nationalism taking hold in our society. Our reputation in the world is being damaged every day. Corruption and self-dealing are an integral part of GOP legislation. They are taking your tax dollars and the programs they fund, that are essential to millions of Americans to give away to the already powerful and wealthy. It is time for regular citizens like you to take a stand.

By donating to your local SD 46 you are supporting true grass roots organizing. Your neighbors and friends, people you see in the store are part of the organization. Please give a donation to Senate District 46. Small monthly donations are easy on the budget and provide stability to the Senate District.

FYI: The $75 or $150 Political Contribution Refund PCR refund may be ending on August 1 this year. There is legislation as part of budget cutting to eliminate this program.

 

My letter to Senators regarding Donald Trumps nominees for government positions.

Dear Senator

I believe Donald Trump is thin skinned and vengeful and he will try to exact revenge on any lawmaker, media personality or citizen who does not or has not succumb to his worst impulses.

Therefore, I ask you to reject all the most controversial nominees for government and law enforcement positions by Mr. Trump.

Beginning with Pam Bondi for Attorney General, while she has some qualifications, she is clearly a Trump acolyte. I fear that she will not support the independence of the Justice Department and in fact bring the entirety of the agency under his thumb.

Kash Patel for FBI is clearly a Trump sycophant. He has said on more than one occasion that he will exact revenge for perceive slights against Trump and will weaponize the FBI for Mr. Trumps benefit.

Tulsi Gabbard for D.N.I. Questions about her loyalty to the United States aside, her fealty to Donald Trump means all of our most precious secrets may be vulnerable to sale to the highest bidder.

Pete Hegseth for Defense, Kristi Noem for Homeland Security, Mehmet Oz for Medicare and Medicaid, Lee Zeldin for E.P.A., Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for HHS, Doug Collins for Veterans Affairs, Howard Lutnick for Commerce, Martin A. Makary for F.D.A., Chris Wright for Energy, Linda McMahon for Education, all these nominees and more have questionable qualifications and motivations that disqualify them from holding the offices they’ve been chosen. The biggest disqualifier is their uncompromising allegiance to Donald Trump who has promised to use our government against the American people.

Normally I would encourage the nomination of a Presidents choices. They have been elected and deserve to have cooperative people managing departments.  This Presidency, I believe will bring retribution to this country beyond our imaginations. It is what he has said he would do. With these nominees he would have full control of the federal government with no checks, no restraint, complete immunity, and will damage our country and our constitutional republic beyond repair.

Sincerely,

Gary DeVaan
Hopkins, MN

Everything Everywhere All at Once

I think I am past the depression created by the election results. Time to start thinking about what we are going to do about it. Trump does not have a mandate, though he will pretend he does. I expect disarray, infighting, and some very bad decisions from this regime. We need to fight this at every opportunity.

I have written before about the disadvantage Democrats have in media and messaging. Conservatives control a majority of media. Their message is coordinated and distributed with efficiency and intent. Their media outlets are available everywhere while perceived liberal media is limited at best. This includes new media like social networks, podcasts, as well as subversive messaging in popular programs.

We see Fox News and the like being shown in public spaces like gyms, airports, military bases, and nearly any place where the public gathers. Podcasters like Joe Rogan and similar hosts, regularly interview conspiracy theorists, republicans, and quack doctors. Social media is rife with trolls and MAGA nuts who wait for a chance to jump on any perceived liberalism. Even dramatic programs and cop shows perpetuate a chronic crime wave that supposedly hasn’t ended since the 1970s, terrorists infiltrating the Mexican border, or cartels that control southwestern states. It all perpetuates the conservative message.

Another advantage conservatives have vs liberals is committed and engaged voters. When Trump decided, he was not going to give up on the nomination of Pete Hegseth, MAGA faithful started sending letters to their Senators. One of the first demonstration of this was in the 1994 midterms when the NRA campaigned against the Brady Bill and the Clinton Administration. NRA members did what they were told to do, and they wrote letters to their congressmen and letters to the editors and most of all, they voted. This is what we need to do during the Trump term.

Resistance will require an everything everywhere all at once strategy. We need to petition media to feature more liberal points of view and provide them with content. We need to combat MAGA trolls on social media. We need to create new media outlets and distribute them, make them available everywhere for free whenever possible. And we need to get liberal narratives in TV writers’ rooms.

During the campaign I went to a few rallies for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. I had watched their stump speeches on TV and knew what they were going to say, but I went anyway because it helps create momentum, I invited friends and family and even brought my wife, who hates crowds and being cooped up in stuffy auditoriums. More people matter at rallies just like more people using their voices in more places will matter in the resistance.

The same is true for letter writing and phone call campaigns. This is something we as individuals can do and should do regularly. It’s a small commitment. Writing letters to all the senators on a committee takes minutes after the letter itself is written. And the letter doesn’t have to be long, keep it short and to the point is always best. Using a web browser and some copy and pasting you can send a letter to all the Senators that are making a decision that is important to you.

Write about what you care about. There are organizations and groups working on your issue and they can guide you in writing an effective message. When we all make our wishes known it can move votes. Congresspeople do keep a count on issues for and against and the Democratic side needs momentum.

Members of the house have a filtering system that asks for your zip code before allowing you to post an email. I have looked up zip codes in their district and used them to bypass this filter. You may rather make a phone call instead. They will ask you where you live but you don’t have to tell them. If you are that person’s constituent, by all means tell them so. This kind of lobbying, and yes that is what it is, can’t be done with form letters or robotic calls.

In reevaluating its media failures of 2024, the Democratic party should formalize a program for Democrats to write and call their representatives. Every time a Democrat is on TV, radio or a podcast they need to encourage the audience to write and call their congresspeople. This cannot be overused. A program like this can be created by multiple interest groups to encourage their voters to do the same.

We need to build a wall of messaging. Everything everywhere all at once to get our message wherever anyone could possibly see it. And that includes citizen correspondence to Senators to oppose nominees, reject trickle down tax cuts, save NATO, and keep Trump off balance. The party needs to invest in the people to do this. I can do it, and you can do it, Let’s do it.

 Why The Media Landscape in the United States is hard for Democracy

I recently created a BlueSky account. The Twitter clone is as welcoming as social media can be. Mostly librarians and lefties like me at this point. I’ll give it about 5 years before it’s invaded by trolls and bots and becomes as untenable as X. It will eventually be bought by a billionaire and become a wasteland like X and Facebook are now or it will be shut down to eliminate competition.

Free speech is a necessity for a liberal society. X is not that and will not be as long as Elon Musk thinks his voice is more correct than anyone he disagrees with, and he uses his influence to diminish anyone not in the MAGA verse.

Conversely, everyone moving to another platform seems like self-sorting. To me the whole point of expressing my opinion online is for the opportunity to change someone’s mind or at least help them understand my reasoning and concerns so I can understand theirs. I still have an X account. I don’t have many followers (2500), so I haven’t been plagued by trolls so much as sex workers and porn sites. I do want my ideas out there where they might spur some thought and maybe even give a Republican a reason to vote for a moderate Democrat. I think by segregating ourselves into like-minded groups we delude ourselves into believing what’s said in our bubble like “Who could vote for Trump?” “X will die” and other wishful group thinking.

Has the internet & social media been good for our country or society? Our free press has always been a vulnerability, it is an opportunity for nefarious people to inject false and harmful ideas into the public domain, but the truth has mostly won by being right. The old adage “You can fool some of the people some of the time…” is true until possibly today when the massive overpopulation of mis and dis information in conservative media may have the ability to fool most of the people most of the time. It doesn’t help that foreign and domestic forces have been pushing false ideas for a long time. Not just conservatives but Vladimir Putin and other despots are waging a battle on our airwaves.

American citizens have been arranging themselves into like-minded groups since the end of the Fairness Doctrine in the 1980s. I’m old enough to remember when the local news was 20 minutes with no commercials. 10 minutes news, 5 weather, and 5 sports. The national news was 15 minutes also no commercials and “that’s the way it was”. Broadcast stations were required to report news of the day to keep their broadcast licenses. They were also required to clearly identify opinion pieces, and present opposing opinions to every editorial they broadcast. And no one company could own more than one media outlet, radio, TV, or print in any single market. The doctrine abided by the First Amendment and was able to restrict ownership because of the idea that money is not speech. How quaint.

That brings me to the reason I started thinking about this subject. During the election I wanted to watch Rachel Maddow. I use a Roku device instead of cable TV. On Roku I can get Fox News, Fox Nation, Onan, Newsmax, and a plethora of other conservative and offensive opinion programming for free with apps. And all channel aggregator apps have most of the conservative channels, but not MSNBC. Each Fox and Sinclare local stations have an app for Roku, Amazon Fire stick, Apple Home, LG TVs, Visio TVs, and any other brand of smart TV you can buy. All the apps are free and do not require a subscription, though they’d like you to have one. Why is there not a similar variety of progressive news apps available? I don’t know, I only know that I cannot, watch MSNBC on my Roku. Even with the Peacock app and a subscription MSNBC is limited to 10 minutes or segments, not the entire program. MSNBC should be free. At least it should have its own app and its own subscription if desired. Other liberal options are Democracy Now and that’s all I can think of at this point, there may be more. This is just one example of how conservative media is taking over all media.

Sure, I can get CBS, NBC and ABC for free. Traditional mostly honest news is what I watch most of the time. I wonder how free and honest these outlets are when they are owned by the same billionaires and billion-dollar conglomerates that own conservative news. And so many of the stories are driven by what happens on Fox and other GOP outlets.

Now with the naming Brendan Carr as the next Federal Communications Commission chairman, we must wonder if there will be any “honest” news broadcasts in the future. It may be too late to try to change the media landscape in the immediate future. Threats to fine and cancel broadcast licenses for networks because Dear Leader doesn’t like the coverage is a real possibility with the new administration.

One of the late-night shows mentioned that one of the top Google searches before election was “Did Joe Biden Resign?”. Which brings us to how poorly all news media is informing citizens. I looked it up and Joe Biden was not in the top 25 searches. Neither was Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. The only news related items in the top 25 was the “Hurricane Milton” followed by “When is election day”. To me this is pitiful. First, it was a failure of the Harris campaign to not know where Americans get their news and information. More importantly this is a failure of corporate news not informing and in fact misinforming their audience. Some news corporations are okay with this. American citizens are poorly informed at best and more likely misinformed. It’s not their fault.

A free press is often described as the fourth branch of government. Like the courts, and now the elected government, it has been taken over by people whose mission is not to inform the populace, but to deliberately mislead, and to mold it into willing subjects. There have been studies of how misinformed Fox News viewers are vs traditional news.

Confirmation bias is one factor in explaining our polarized media and misinformed citizenry. Another idea is that people don’t think they need to know what is in the news. They feel what happens in Washington, or a far-off war does not affect them directly, and that they don’t have the knowledge, time, or energy to delve into these issues, so they accept the ideas and solutions that are convenient, entertaining, and fit their existing opinions. People are mostly disengaged because, making a living, raising children, and life is big and complicated enough already.

The Democratic party does not and should not control the media, but conservatives control most of the media. And right-wing media is united. The same talking points are repeated endlessly on all the platforms and eventually make it into country music and entertainment deepening conservative ideas. The next four years will be dark times, and the voters could rebel unless they’re convinced that their hardship is worthwhile or necessary. The GOP has the media power to convince them this is normal and right.

We, the United States, needs to decide how to inform ourselves, the citizens, truthfully and with a wide range of ideas. We need to invest in honest media. The question is how? Subscriptions? This model creates more sorting by ideology. Government funded? Maybe, but funding PBS & NPR is already difficult. Another billion-dollar corporation or individual? This seems most likely but that provides the same suspicion newspapers and the networks are already fighting against. Public media like NPR, PBS and ProPublica are supported by foundations. Perhaps more and new foundations with expressed commitment to not interfere with the journalism created by news outlets is the answer.

ProPublica.org is a good example of quality investigative journalism and traditional networks and newspapers do a good job of creating interesting and informative stories and diverse opinions. The biggest problem is most people don’t watch or read them. Distributing these stories into more news feeds and social media is necessary to get more people accurate news.

Beginning in the 1960’s conservatives started calling all media liberal, left wing, and slanted. Of course it wasn’t true, there were conservative newspapers and commentators in broadcast. But the idea began to stick as the world became more complicated and mistrust of government and institutions became common. We progressives need to identify media that is slanted conservative media and misinformation. Encourage people to find other sources and guide them to honest news. There should be a segment or story every day about how conservative media is misinforming people. Most people are smart enough to understand biased media when they see it, but a little push wouldn’t hurt. More importantly, there should be media literacy and logic classes taught in high school.

Liberals tried to counter conservative radio in the 90s with the Air America Radio network. The problem was we were too late. Corporations run by conservative CEOs like Clear Channel had already bought up most of the local radio stations and had a competitive advantage, AAR didn’t have deep enough pockets to win markets. Another issue was liberals do not like to be angry, sorry for the generalization. We want to be informed, not pissed off. And NPR already existed.

The United States needs to have a media that respects the first amendment and provides a wide variety of ideas. The problem we have with the vast array of media outlets is, it is impossible for everyone to hear all of these ideas. People self-sort into media silos where in some cases we’re told to not trust people who do not listen to your station or share your ideas. To me this is why we are so polarized and why a criminal narcissist can become President.

Recently I watched the documentary Join or Die joinordiefilm.com on Netflix. The film discussed the book by Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. His research hypothesized that in person communicating, talking to people face to face is an essential element in a healthy society. Studying the regions of Italy in the 60s he concluded the difference between healthy well-run governments and failed governments was not the leaders, education, or wealth, It was the fact that the successful provinces had more people participating in clubs, churches, and community groups. Something completely unrelated to governance but provided the citizens with the practice and training of working together.

Maybe, in order to unify and heal our wounded country we should shun the media altogether. Turn off the TV, get out of the house, and talk to your neighbors, join a club, volunteer. Unsubscribe from social media and stop worrying about what the trolls and people you haven’t seen in a decade think. If we, or at least more of us, engaged in person with our local communities, it could influence our fellow citizens for the better. Afterall, we know The Revolution Will Not Be Televised

 

Whatever happened to the United States?

It seems in recent years our countrymen have been inclined to call our great country something other than what it is, or at least used to be. The United States of America is the name of our country. Our country is a collection of states inside the American continent. America is a nice short name but is not accurate.

There is nothing wrong with calling ourselves America. We are Americans after all. We live in the American Continent. However, so do Canadians, Mexicans, Argentinians, and Cubans for that matter. It seems kind of presumptuous of us, or any country’s citizens to claim the entire continent.

I just remember our leaders ending speeches with “God bless these United States of America” instead of “God bless America” Perhaps it’s my memory. Didn’t John Wayne in a soliloquy at the end some WWII epic declare the promise of the United States of America? In modern times, we had George W. Bush close with his unmistakable Texan “God bless Amerika”. President Obama quickly closes with “God Bless America” like a linguistic fist bump to the country. Donald Trump expelled “God Bless America” like we’ve just been licked on the face by St Bernard. President Joe Biden asks for blessings for our troops. A worthy ask but somehow none of these have the weight of “God bless the United States of America.” There should be a dramatic pause before, and after, before the speaker surrenders the podium.

The United States won World War II and developed the modern world order. If we want the glory and respect of the old days, we should go back to that identifier.

Perhaps it’s subconscious. Maybe we don’t use the words United States, because we are feeling less united. Even the initials U.S., US, invites unity. We should use it more often. That is in fact the elephant in the room. We are not united any more.

It seems we are being divided more and more every year. Black v. white, gay v. straight, religious v. agnostic, urban v. rural, and red v. blue are just a few of the ways we are splitting ourselves from each other. The conservative v. liberal is the most pronounced divide. This trend has been studied and talked about for years, and was born before the 60s, during the FDR era, and perhaps before that.

It almost seems like nearly half of us don’t like, or don’t trust the other half very much. We don’t think they are doing their fair share; they are trying to take the country away from us, making it harder to be who we want to be, removing our entitlement, our “God given right as Americans” is under threat.

People listen to dog whistle radio stations, watch TV infotainment and disinfotainment, where the news is presented in perspective of the audience. Facts are not facts unless my favorite talking head says so and he can twist the reality to match my/his opinion and reinforce the fear and victimhood I am entitled to. The divisions have gotten so, that people are physically moving to places where they live among like-minded people. We have “safe” states, blue and red, safe districts, urban and rural.

Franken Delano Roosevelt said many years ago, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” Perhaps he is just as right now as he was in the depths of the depression, maybe more. The fear we are instilling in ourselves is more insidious. There is not one big monster or force to be afraid of, there are a thousand things, some small, some large, all of them are abstract and hard to find a definite solution. Answers are a matter of opinion, and no one can agree on what to do. And my opinion matters as much as yours even if it has been discredited years ago in a previous argument because the world is different, things are more extreme, and we are afraid. We can’t even agree on the outcome of our choices and our elections. Well… Buck-up kiddos, if we don’t get our poop in a group things are going to get much worse.

A big part of the problem is that we have divided ourselves between religious and non-religious / not Christian. Years ago, most of us were white Christians. That is not the case any longer and that is the deepest divide. While it may be advantageous for Christians to believe the United States was founded to be a Christian nation, certainly founded by people with Christian upbringing, it is not true that the founders intended the nation to be ruled by Christion theology. Simply because if you allow that, who’s version of “Christian” do you use? Whose prayers do you allow in schools? Thus, the founders made a point of allowing room for other faiths and for no faith. They understood that the United States would attract people from all over the world. It was already happening in 1776, people of Jewish, Muslim, and other faiths were arriving in this country and there needed to be and still needs to be room for them.

The constitution and rule of man-made law is to be the religion of the state. Many people believe it secondary to religion, and that’s okay. The founders just wanted a clear line between state law and religious practices enforced by choice. The difference between law and sin.

With so many important issues that our nation and our human civilization must deal with on a global scale, disease, climate, and containment of dictatorial regimes. We need to develop more unity, more togetherness, more ability to accept each other as we are, as God made us, and not as we wished people to be. In the infamous words of Ben Franklin, "We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately" is as true now than it has ever been.

We need all the ideas available to solve some of these problems. Political discourse is a national brainstorming session. Everything should be allowed. Anyone who diminishes another citizen’s idea is truly the one who is not being patriotic.

We all know each other through family, work, church and civic organizations. We get along with people we know, even if they have a different political perspective. We must try to extend that goodwill to people we don’t know personally; try to empathize with what they think and acknowledge their fears and concerns.

Discussing politics and each other’s ideas after we know what and why they exist is necessary for a healthy republic to exist. But be open minded and express your ideas. Do not be afraid; just practice the philosophy of Teddy Roosevelt, “Your right to swing your arms begin at the end of my nose.” Let your opinion be known but don’t insult people who disagree. I have to admit this is hard to do and I fail regularly.

Let me borrow from President Obama’s farewell speech “So regardless of the station we occupy; we all have to try harder; we all have to start with the premise that each of our fellow citizens loves this country just as much as we do; that they value hard work and family just like we do; that their children are just as curious and hopeful and worthy of love as our own.”

Perhaps if we were to start describing ourselves as united as in the United States of America, perhaps then we’d remember that we are part of something bigger, that we have and are building this country with all our divisions, flaws and disagreements we belong together. Maybe saying it would help bringing us together in some way.

My sincerest wish is that God, Allah, Yahweh, Buddha, the stars, or the Force bless the United States of America.

Dear President Biden,

It has become perfectly clear that the Supreme Court of the United States has become occupied by corporate interests who are not working for the betterment of the country. Recent decisions indicate that the court is run by the most conservative justices who are consistently ruling in favor of the wealthy and the powerful subjugating minorities, women, and the underprivileged.

The time has come to appoint four new justices to the Supreme Court. There would be popular support for more justices. It is in your power and that of the Senate to add justices to the court.

The corporate conservative movement has mobilized a minority of citizens to successfully paralyze congress. Now that they have complete control of the court they can effectively legislate from the bench as conservative kings.

I think the court should have 21 justices with 3 sub courts adding another level of appeal or two before a decision reaches the full court. I understand there are plenty of cases that need to be decided by SCOTUS but only a politically chosen few are ever elevated to this level. There also should be a maximum age or a term limit that guarantees every President at least 1 appointment per term.

Most importantly there needs to be an enforced code of ethics for justices on the bench. Justices and their families should not be politically active outside of voting. They must recuse themselves whenever there is a case where they or their families have an interest financially, personally, or professionally.

I honestly think the reason that polling of citizens saying “The country is on the wrong path” is mostly because things are not improving soon enough, not enough is being done to combat climate change, poverty, income inequality, and gun violence. SCOTUS is unjustly hindering your and Congresses ability to make the improvements the people are demanding.

Joe, Please add more justices to the court. That is the first step in reforming this out of control Supreme Court.

 

Sincerely
Gary DeVaan

 Why we are so angry.

Now that we have suffered another indignity thrust upon us by willful conservative ignorants. Ignorants in the media, ignorants in the government, ignorants in religion, ignorants in corporate America, and unfortunately, ignorants of willingly deceived American citizens.

These different groups have brought about the near failing of the United States constitution on January 6, 2021. But that is just the latest insult to our nation.

President Ronald Reagan removed the Fairness Doctrine enforced by the FCC giving media corporations the ability to focus their messages on partisan goals enforcing one side of every argument and politicizing every aspect of American life, where you live, how you worship, what music you listen to, where you get your coffee, and of course weather you wear a mask to protect yourself and others in your orbit during a pandemic. Be selfish, you are owed more, others are taking from you, being the ongoing message for 50 years.

A single corporation can now own most media outlets in any market, newspaper, tv, and radio stations. They are killing off local coverage and shrinking newsrooms to the detriment of an educated electorate. Too many markets only have conservative media funneling the party line into the brains of an undereducated populace that reactively buys guns and angers whenever they do not win an election. Ironically blaming the media. Not their preferred outlet, the other’s outlet, mainstream media.

The ministers and bishops in these towns reinforce the grievances advertised in the media by doubling down on the victimization of their faith, their race, and their political opinion. If God is on our side, we have to win it all. No compromise is acceptable, no vacillation is redeemable. Always push for conservative ideas, no matter if they have lost in the court of public opinion, no matter if they are right or wrong, no matter if the facts do not support them. The election was stolen from our candidate even if it was corroborated by recount and the courts. We are victims, always victims.

Corporate America never lets an opportunity go to waste. They fund lobbying groups and conservative candidates, looking for the short-term gain, tax cuts, special exemptions, grants and contracts that had special sweeteners from favored recipients of PAC and campaign committees. Every year, every congress, every election strengthening the corporate grip on federal and state governments. Always taking and taking from the public coffers money and privilege leaving less and less for average American people who work and are unprivileged.

The elected conservative ignorants always needing those campaign contributions, grabbing for power and control using their position to impeach a duly elected President because he lied to his wife and in turn the American people about an embarrassing breach of personal conduct that had no impact on his ability to perform his duties and was NOT a high crime or misdemeanor.

A few years later they insisted to remedy a contested election in Florida with appointment of a corporate President by a majority of conservative judges in the supreme court instead of a recount, even though he lost the national popular vote by a substantial margin.

The corporate President then failed to protect our country from the worst terrorist attack on our country and proceeded to use that attack to convince the American people to attack a different country with oil resources for the corporate elite. Iraq, while ruled by a brutal dictator, had nothing to do with the terrorist attack. A made-up war for financial gain where approximately 200,000 Iraqis, and 4,424 American service members lost their lives and nearly 32,000 Americans were injured. All so corporate accountants can report improved numbers to their CEOs. If not that reason, why?

That same failed president, always a fan of deregulation of the financial markets allowed a fantastic bubble in real estate markets to cause the greatest recession in American history. Putting millions of American citizens out of work and out of their homes. Between the wars and the financial bailout Bush increased the federal debit by 101%. So much for fiscal responsibility.

The next President trying to help the American people proposed stimulus and health care to assist the middle and working class, but those efforts got no support from the elected ignorants. One corporate ignorant begrudged the people because I suspect he thought he was a victim of government largess, apparently his 7-digit income was at risk if the taxpayers helped the homeless. This rallied other victims of welfare. Clearly, they would be hurt by the unwashed being fed and housed. How could a black man have so much power, he must be from somewhere else. Throughout the eight years of President Obama’s administration the elected ignorants refused to cooperate in any way. They blocked needed judges including a judge for the supreme court just so they could “win”. They blocked every important relief for the American people and complained every day about a socialist president.

With the backing of a foreign government a new and more dangerous ignorant corporate president was elected. Again, without a majority of votes. This president would not hide his resentment of those he deemed less than, insulting and degrading whoever got in his way. The willingly deceived ate it up. He told it the way it is. With his limited vocabulary of curse words and an 8-year-old reading level, his small hands signed executive order after executive order tearing apart any and all of the progress of his predecessor. His only legislative achievements were huge tax cuts for the wealthy (the only requirement of the corporate ignorants) and his appointment to the courts every federalist society judge that was available to fill the gaping holes in the judiciary left by the majority leader.

Colluding with foreign government worked so well last time he thought he’d try again. With the cooperation of his congressional ignorants this failed president survived an impeachment with only one vote from his party voting for conviction. “If this is not an impeachable offence what is?” said the house manager. Perhaps the saddest day in American history up to this point. An entire political party was willing to allow a corrupt and unqualified traitor to remain in office for political expediency.

The antics of this ignorant president became so widespread, that never a day went by without another norm being misused. Appointments not made, actions not taken, the government was being thinned with every executive order and every utterance of “some people say”. He was brainwashed during his “executive time” watching the ignorants on conservative media and acting on those false facts and misunderstood ideas during his four-hour workday when he wasn’t playing golf.

He used his office for every profit-making venture he could. Still in control of his hotel business, he overcharged his security detail and forced every interaction with his administration to happen at his hotels and properties. Stealing from his allies, his party, the government, and the American people.

When the next election came, he knew he would lose. He floated not having an election or postponing it. He continued to say, “the election is rigged” and he did his best to make that true. When the election resulted in his loss, he contested the election with no proof or examples of corruption. The American people clearly rejected him and all the recounts and court cases proved him a liar again and again.

The willingly deceived ignorants were not deterred. They rallied for him with weapons and combat gear in costumes and emblazoned flags and MAGA hats they stormed to the capitol to stop a constitutionally mandated action by the elected representatives of this nation. They broke windows, doors, art, desks, beat-up police, and literally defecated on the heart of democracy, the soul of the country. Just because their feelings were hurt by not winning a fair election.  They “feel” like they did not get a fair shake. Are they ready to take this government by force before the inauguration?

The ignorants ignore the most important issues and thrust our attention to menial and passing issues. Natural disasters are gods will. Shootings in schools are the price for freedom. Homelessness and destitution are caused by lack of moral character.  Other peoples suffering is not their concern. “What’s in it for me?” They Say.

What’s in it for them is a functioning society where standards are respected, where everyone has the right to challenge those standards, but no one has the right to violently overthrow these standards.  A society where we use science and good intentions to help all of us through a pandemic, natural disasters, climate change, and global actors that truly threaten our way of life.

A society where everyone has an opportunity to achieve. Where everyone enjoys life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 

This another letter to all of the GOP Senators. I encourage anyone to use this letter or parts of it to write your own letters. It only takes a half hour to post 50-60 letters. Please do it.
Here's a link to contact pages. https://1drv.ms/x/s!AvPRx9mTeH-Eo_4mIKXoNonaWswA_w?e=RxaBr8

Dear Senator

I don’t understand what Mitch McConnell does to control you and the 52 other republican Senators.

Every bit of logic, morality and common sense demands that new information is required to conduct a reasonable facsimile of a trial.

We know that in private you agree that Donald J Trump is not qualified to be President, but in public and more importantly by your votes, you condone him every day.

It is obvious to more than 60% of Americans that Trump is corrupt, distasteful, and only has his own interests in mind when he does anything. It is likely that Trump is a Russian asset, or in the very least is allowing Putin and the Russian federation to take advantage of the corruption that he allows in our government. We all know that Trump is dismantling our rule of law, presidents, and common decency in our country. We see him using our treasury as his own slush fund by visiting his properties every week and promoting and forcing government employees to patronize his properties.

Donald J Trump is a clear and present danger to our country and out way of life. He must be removed and prevented from being President in the future.

And yet you vote for him at every opportunity. Is it money? Are you as corrupt as Mitch McConnell and Donald J Trump? Is there some piece of information that is not allowed in public that forces your hand?

Please for the sake of the country, the constitution, the Senate, the Republican party, your family, and your reputation. Please vote for witnesses and then conviction.

This is my letter to all of the GOP Senators today. I encourage anyone to use this letter or parts of it to write your own letters. Here's a link to contact pages. https://1drv.ms/x/s!AvPRx9mTeH-Eo_4mIKXoNonaWswA_w?e=RxaBr8

Dear Senator

Tomorrow the President will ask for a vote to dismiss all charges against him in the impeachment trial. Please do NOT vote to dismiss. While you may or may not believe in the validity of the trial, I do. My family and friends who live in your state do too. There are many parts of the events last summer and fall that need to be explored.

The defense will claim that the articles of impeachment are not broken laws and therefore not high crimes and misdemeanors. However, the fact that the GAO found that the OMB violated the law by withholding aid to Ukraine fulfills the broken law false requirement demanded by the defense.

Donald J. Trump was very likely involved with the Russians in 2016 and is again in 2020 trying to validate Putin’s disinformation that the Ukrainians hacked the DNC when all of the U.S. intelligence agencies know it was the Russians under Putin’s orders.

Donald J. Trump likes to act like a mafia boss, but he is really the Maynard G. Krebs of the 21^st century. Wasting taxpayer money on his vacations and more “executive time” than my retired grandparents.

As a mafia boss, he is regularly in violation of the emolument’s clause wasting our taxpayer money and putting it in his own pocket. Trump is the most corrupt, incompetent, and lazy President this country has ever had, and it’s time to remove him from office.

For the sake of the country, the constitution, for your party, and your reelection, Please vote for a thorough investigation of the facts and then to convict and remove this corrupt and traitorous president from the white house.

OK Boomer

As an ageing baby boomer, I love this retort. It means that despite our failures, and many there are, we have successfully educated our grandchildren to think critically and not to accept a given answer as gospel. We should thank our children I suppose. All those participation awards have empowered our youngest to speak up & talk back and that is fantastic.

My generation had so much hope and potential. We ended an unjust war, we fought for human rights for African Americans, homosexuals, and women. We began the environmental movement. We created culture and art that influences the world. We conquered a dictatorial communist empire and converted others to market economies. We shrunk the world with the internet and spread dignity & education around the world by championing markets, human rights and women’s rights.

Alas it wasn’t enough. In fact, you could argue that our parents are really the ones who deserve those achievements.

We allowed our materialism and greed to influence our politics with tax avoidance and more unjust wars. We dropped the ball on the environment, resting on our laurels of reducing air & water pollution. We forgot to take care of those less fortunate in our towns and cities. We looked to enrich ourselves without any concern about the infrastructure of society. We stopped championing human rights and just made the easy sell of markets. Those countries we conquered have become new versions of their former selves just with more money. After Watergate we devalued public service and that made room for people of less character to become our leaders. We allowed con men to convince us that we didn’t have any responsibility for the world we created.

We limited our life goals to “He who dies with the most toys wins.”

We lost our imagination and creativity. We could have recreated our society into a near utopia. Most of our art is formulaic & auto-tuned (ok maybe that is the kids).  We settled for the internet when we should have been exploring the solar system. We launched more satellites that look at ourselves than look at the universe.

The “OK Boomer” retort is a perfect case of what goes around comes around. I remember "Don't trust anyone over 30". Our generation HAS failed our country and the world. We went from “peace & love”, to profits & power. From “do your own thing”, to “Just say No”.

I hope the new generation is smarter and wiser than we were and don't fall into the traps we did. They appear to be. 

Practicality and career shouldn't dominate looking out for each other, the country and the world. Don’t lose your idealism, it’s more valuable than it looks at 30 or 40. You’ll always have regrets just do your best.

Go get 'em kids! I wish I was 18 years old (for so many reasons). I'll have to help from where I am.

Donald J. Trump is unfit for office.

Dear Senator, 

Donald J. Trump is unfit for office.

As a patriot and citizen, I cannot stand by and watch the destruction of our republic. After the clear effort to pressure the Ukrainian government to conspire with the Trump campaign to discredit Joe Biden, And his effort to enrich himself with the placement of the G7 conference at his property, it should be obvious to every American that this president will not stop using the power of the Presidency for his own personal gain. I hope the above facts make it obvious to you too.

My extended family consists of patriots, veterans, conservatives, and liberals who have been shocked and dismayed by the behavior of Mr. Trump. Many of my family live in your state and are too stunned to move let alone express their disapproval of this president. We all wish and work for the best for every citizen and the betterment of the nation. To not ask for the impeachment and removal of Donald Trump would be counter to that effort.

The above reasons are not the only violations of office that Mr. Trump has committed. Allowing and encouraging interference in our elections by Russia, China. Obstruction of Justice as relayed in the Muller Report. Betraying our allies in the middle east. Dismissing our allies in NATO and other treaties, decimating the State Department, Intelligence agencies, and Homeland Security by advocating their research and conclusions are false, taking the word of a known murderer and despot. Reducing the pressure on North Korea by canceling routine military training and basically ignoring the development of nuclear arms. The constant betrayal of the first amendment and a free press. The dismantling of environmental regulation and ignoring of corruption in his administration. All of this and many more makes the United States weaker at home and abroad.

The world is literally laughing at us.

Just the case that many of his appointments have not been confirmed or vetted by the Senate remains a point of weakness for our country.

I ask you with utmost importance that you support the impeachment of Donald Trump and vote to remove him from office. This cancer that has attached itself onto our nation must be extracted from our body politic.

He has thrown many of his former friends and allies under the bus. There is room for you there. When enough honorable Republicans join the likes of Comey, Tillerson & Mattis, you will have enough strength to lift this burden from our country and get on with doing the people’s business.

Please vote to remove Donald Trump from office.

It’s time to buck up.

Dear Republicans,

It’s been fun spinning-up the libtards. Trolling family on social media for “knowing better”. Enjoying elected officials panic about the environment, asylum seekers in jail, or presidential treason. But, once in a while don’t you begin to think “Woah” this might be too much?

Is now the time to re-think what’s we’re doing? Let’s face it, Donald Trump hasn’t been a very good President. The economy is on the verge of a recession. Congress hasn’t gotten much done thanks to Mitch McConnell holding up over 300 bipartisan bills passed by the house. The world is literally laughing at our President. He is ruining relations with our allies and trying to make nice with all the wrong people. He’s using the office to rake in more money than he’s ever made. He is abrasive & rude to say the least. He doesn’t play by any rules that aren’t good for him.

Oh, yea, and he’s soliciting help from foreign leaders to trash his political opponents.

Maybe it’s time to cut him loose? Maybe REAL patriots should start writing their Senators to demand that they convict Donald Trump if/when he’s impeached. If Republican Senators commit to removing Trump we can stop worrying about what he’s going to do next and fix some things in this country. We could even talk to our liberal family members again.

It’s been fun. But now it’s time to be serious and impeach and convict Donald Trump.

Please convict Donald Trump

Dear Senator,

It has become abundantly clear that Donald J Trump must be removed from office. I am writing to encourage you, to plead with you, and to beg you to release yourself from the illogical and faulty devotion to This President.

The evidence is clear that Mr. Trump has abandoned his oath of office by using foreign resources to investigate and intimidate a United States Citizen and a political foe. By doing this he has broken a fundamental trust with the American people. The argument of Quid Pro Quo or not is irrelevant. Donald Trump is using foreign counties, possibly foreign intelligence agencies, to interfere in our elections, just as he likely did in the 2016 election. If that isn’t a high crime, nothing is.

The adherence of the Senate Republicans to this President is widely seen as a ploy to hold on to the conservative base. I understand the fear of losing this cohesive constituency. However, the oath you swore when you became a Senator was to uphold the constitution, not to uphold a constituency who you must admit, is being led by a self-interested conservative media complex that doesn’t always tell the truth.

To paraphrase Mathew 16:26 “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul” In other words, this is a steep price for winning the next election and you can’t guarantee that this strategy will win the next election.

I would venture to say that the remainder of the electorate is convinced that Trump is a very corrupt man who is damaging our country’s reputation abroad and our basic institutions at home. They will and should punish Trump’s “loyal Senators” at the ballot box next year and possibly for years to come. The only way to redeem the party is to pluck out the corruption and do the people’s business.

I believe we need two functioning parties in this country if we want to have all ideas and options available for the many problems we are facing in the years to come. These ideas need to be vetted with honesty and vigorous debate. We cannot have that if one party is or is perceived to be corrupt and constantly working for the next election verses the good of the people, and not giving the electorate the opportunity to fairly elect their leaders.

Please, I respectfully implore you to vote for a conviction of Donald Trump and heal our country.

Impeach and Convict Donald Trump and Get the People’s Business Done.

Dear Senator

I am writing you to express my disgust at the behavior of the President and the willingness of the Republican caucus's determination to protect Donald Trump. I will not repeat the plethora of laws and indignities Trump and his administration have committed. I want you to understand the facts of the investigation and be truthful to the American people on what is discovered. The results are obvious that Trump is nothing more than a two-bit mob boss and should be impeached, convicted, and removed from office so his stain can be cleaned from the fabric of these United States.

From the way that you and fellow Republicans are defending Trump I can only conclude that the GOP caucus and Senator Mitch McConnell are involved in much of the same corruption. The Republican party has lost its way and no longer has the citizens of our country as its primary concern. The GOP is now ruled by big money contributions from fossil fuel interests, health care insurance, pharmaceutical and other big contributors that only have their profits in mind when asking for you allegiance that you willingly give away for these contributions. I understand who your REAL bosses are, and they do not care about Democracy or the United States. I need you to break free from this corruption and again work for us, the citizens of this great country.

There are over 140 bills that are important business of the people and have been passed by bipartisan votes in the House and are waiting in the Senate for votes. These bills will make improvements in the lives of millions of Americans in health care, education, ballot access, government corruption, gun safety, and most importantly environment. All these bills are waiting for you to vote and pass but are being held in a black hole created by Mitch McConnell and your party.

I need you to do two things. Convict Donald Trump and remove him from office and pass the bills the American people are literally dying for. In my opinion if you are not acting to reduce corporate corruption or passing laws to improve the environment and reducing climate change you have no business in government.

I do not fill your campaign coffers, but I do pay your paycheck. Do what is right for your state and the citizens of your state. Impeach and remove Donald Trump and pass the bills before you.

Sincerely
Gary DeVaan
Hopkins, MN

In Defense of an Idiot

Never ever is there any excuse for someone to act violently against anyone, let alone our elected officials. To act against our elected representatives, no matter what office is an insult to your fellow Americans, Citizens, and civil society. Basically, your saying that your fellow citizens have made a bad decision, and voted for a person who is unacceptable to society and that person must be removed from office immediately. Violence of any kind is a rejection of civil society, but violence against elected representatives is an attack on our system of governance and civilization itself. Civility is what we need now more than ever.

However, I don’t think the anger James T. Hodgkinson felt was misplaced. As a politically active liberal, who sees the conservative party as corrupt and self-centered, this last election was very frustrating. It’s understandable, no, predictable, that someone felt the need to take matters into his own hands. I don’t know the mental health history of Mr. Hodgkinson, or for that matter his mental state on Wednesday.  Clearly, he was angry. I just think Mr. Hodgkinson felt as I do, that if the country doesn’t start taking care of it’s citizens soon, people will become desperate.

I don’t want to start a rant against Republicans here, because what the country needs is more political unity. However, from my perspective, it seems that when they win elections they take full advantage of their position without concern or respect for the opposite party, or more importantly their voters, or for that matter the spirit of the constitution, or again the welfare of the country. They do everything in their power to win the next election through redrawing legislative districts and restricting the rights of voters to name a few. All the while proposing and sometimes passing legislation that is no more than huge handouts for the wealthiest among us at the expense of the safety net below the rest of us.

As far as we know today Mr. Hodgkinson wasn’t mentally ill, he was a politically active citizen who was at the end of his rope. He wanted better things for his children and grandchildren and saw those advantages for working people being sucked into the giant vacuum of tax cuts and special benefits being collected by the .01%. What Republicans, conservatives, and the uber wealthy need to understand is that as more and more people, regardless of political persuasion, begin to reach the end of their own ropes, more people will need to try to take matters into their own hands. If things keep going the way they are, the rate of citizens coming to this conclusion could reach a critical mass.

What we need is less “winner take all” politics and more accommodation for the rights of both parties. For both parties to respect each other and their voters. To respect the traditions of the Congress and the bureaucrats who work in it. Of course this won’t happen unless the partisans and the press don’t begin to show some restraint.

To prevent this outcome we need two functional political parties who represent actual people in this country. I think the Democrats do represent real people. I’m biased. I do not think the Republicans do, nor do I think they are functional. This summer will be the test. If they cannot pass a major bill or budget, they will be proven to be able to win elections through stacking the deck and massive amounts of money from their corporate overlords, but not able to govern. I also believe they don’t represent the people who voted for them. Many Republican voters who are un-moneyed, are likely to be hurt by much of the legislation proposed by this Republican majority. Surly these people didn’t consciously vote for laws that will hurt them. No.

I can hear people thinking “poor snowflake, can’t win the election and get his way. Try winning an election then you can rig the election to your advantage, not like you wouldn’t.” It’s true, when Democrats were in power in years when the districts are constitutionally mandated to be redrawn, we do draw the districts in our favor. But not with such blatant precision has the other party has over the last 20 years. Republicans have even redrawn statewide legislative maps in years when the task was not mandated. Nor have we tried to prevent likely Republican voters from voting through legislation or amendment. That wouldn’t be right or fair.

The truth is, the Republican party has been taken over by the .01%. The Koch, Mercer, DeVos, Adelson, and a very few other families pretty much run the party. Moderate Republicans have been primaried out of existence. Any Republican who dares to talk about climate change for example, or propose solutions to it, are immediately given notice that they will have a primary, usually from someone far more to the right. If the have any courage a moderate will stick to the issue and do their best to convince the voters that it’s the right thing to do, but too many times they reverse themselves to avoid the primary challenge.

These families who run the Republican party are the type of people who expect their wishes to be obeyed. That’s how they’ve been treated all their lives. Most of these people are trust fund babies. Most if not all of their wealth was inherited, so they’ve been pampered since childhood. 

The politics of the families is far to the right of most Americans. Many are former John Birchers, some whose parents were sympathetic to fascists, and some are direct decedents of the robber barons of the 1920s. Are these the people who should be in charge of a major political party? Let alone the country? This is why there is such income inequality. This is why so many fathers and mothers have to work 2 jobs for a subsistence living for their children. These people fight against a living wage, health care, transportation, and infrastructure, anything they can do so the government will tax them less.

These families have the resources to create think tanks, university programs, and covert organizations to control media and government agencies, and have used them to influence legislation, influence the press, (they own most of it), and in the end influence voters. They influence all the federal elections, State elections in most states and selected local elections such as school board and city council.

Some of their successes are turning the working class against organized labor, making us believe that wealthy people are somehow better human beings simply because they are wealthy, making people in rural America believe that urban dwellers and minorities are to blame for all their suffering, and the biggest fallacy of all, that lower taxes create jobs. These are long term projects to try to create an American mindset that agrees with they’re point of view. All of it is specious at best.

All this effort, all these structures, all these people, are used mainly to consolidate more money and power. As if more of what they already have will make them better somehow. Is it some kind of perverse contest?

It turns out Mr. Hodgkinson was an idiot with a bad temper. He had no right to do what he did. I just wish more Americans were angrier about our country being taken from them. I wish more Republicans were angrier about the hijacking of their party. I wish the oligarchs understood that harming the American people in the long run is detrimental to everything they may (or may not) have worked for, a prosperous, dynamic country, where a person with hard work and a good idea can become successful. Not a place where only the winners survive, and all the little people can be squashed.

Dysfunction, incompetence, and inconsistent.

The President had a good week.

He has gotten his Supreme court nominee onto the court, at great cost to the republic, but he got it done. The sacrificing of the filibuster, a long-held tradition of the United States Senate, and any hope of a less polarized congress was the casualty. He doesn’t care too much. That has been his dysfunction, he doesn’t care about much.

On Monday, he said he didn’t care about whether Assad stayed in power in Syria or not, Friday he wages war against Assad and possibly Russia. We could call it inconsistent, you might give him a pass on that since I might have changed my mind considering the atrocity unleashed by Assad, but I wonder if he thought the whole thing through. It doesn’t look like it.

The real inconsistency is his work on his health care plan, he said “everyone covered for less money, go to any doctor you want,” to negotiating with the “Freedom” caucus to take away health insurance from possibly more people than had gained it under the Affordable Care Act, with the likelihood of higher premiums with less coverage. All he wants is a win.

As of today, of the 553 key positions that must be approved by the Senate Trump has only nominated 24. There are 28 more who have been announced but not yet sent to the Senate for approval. This is only part of the 1200 positions that require Senate approval. There are another 3800 or so total political appointees that have not been sourced. The reason for this is some kind of loyalty test that many potential candidates have failed. What about qualifications for the job? Is he willing to substitute competence for loyalty? Just that he hasn’t made the appointments is incompetent.

With the failure of their health care bill and any compromise on the horizon. Any tax bill looks to be just another fight among the Republicans, I don’t hold out much hope that the Republicans will be able to govern at all for the next 2 years. They’ll get some small things done. Repeal any climate saving rules for the oil and coal industries that were imposed by President Obama, make some rich people richer by making it easier for banksters to siphon off money from our retirement accounts. But they won’t be able to pull off the big transfer of power and wealth to the already obscenely rich and obscurely powerful.

I feel that If Mr. Trump survives his first term, and we have not had a nuclear event, a major war, or a financial meltdown, I am expecting one or more of these. I will consider his presidency a success. The United States will have dodged a bullet.

The best part for me, of this dumpster fire of an administration, is that we may never again have to hear “why don’t we let a business man run the government” Clearly that is a bad idea.

Refuse to use Plastic.

We all hate plastic. We hate plastic food containers, plastic water bottles, plastic shopping bags, plastic product packaging (I really hate blister packaging), and all the little crappy toys and nick-knacks that we see in every convenience store. We hate plastic in the oceans, in the landfills,  anywhere in the environment and the chemicals from plastic in the food chain.

My wife Peggy and I are eco consumers. We use reusable bags, bottles and cups. In our household we don’t buy anything or at least resist purchasing items with plastic packaging, and if we have to we will pay more for something not packaged in plastic, or at least in recycled/recyclable plastic and everything that can, does go in the recycling bin. We use bar soap, bar shampoo, bar shaving soap & a brush and refill glass bottles for other household products. Lately we have been relaxing some because our city started accepting any plastic with a recycling label, numbers 1-7. Most, but not all packaging is one of those so we've been buying more things in or made from plastic.

Then I discovered the Plastic Pollution Coalition website through some tweets I've been receiving. This opened my eyes (again) about the serious nature of plastic pollution. The realization that only 93% of recyclable plastic produced is recycled. Even when it is recycled, it’s energy intensive, and the new product is still many times, thrown away.

My question for the reader is should we discourage recycled/recyclable plastic? Peggy and I have a small online store that sells some recycled plastic items, bowls & utensils and we sell BioBags biodegradable plastic-like bags for the kitchen. They are all great products, but are they equally bad for the environment as virgin plastic? My thought is no, but they may not be much better for the environment than virgin plastic.

While I still think that as a nation & society, in the mean-time, we need to recycle all plastic that exists, but we really have to stop making any new plastic.

We as consumers need to demand better packaging options from wherever we buy anything. Write that letter to Costco, Target, & Wal-Mart to stop selling items packaged in plastic or items made from virgin plastic. If you buy durable items like benches, picnic tables or waste baskets, buy ones that are not plastic preferably or made from recycled plastic as a second choice. Look for the products that have recycling information on the package, if there isn’t any, don’t buy it.

We as citizens should pass laws to limit the manufacture of virgin plastic. Until plastic can be recycled and re-recycled like aluminum cans, no consumer item can be made from virgin plastic. All plastic products and packaging should have recycling information on it. More money needs to be spent on recycling programs and more research into the health risks that plastic in the environment creates. Existing plastics need to be recycled into fence posts, telephone poles or something that doesn’t get thrown into a landfill or worn down into microscopic bits that end-up in our food, water, and us.

Chemicals from plastic are in our food chain, therefore in us and in our children. It may be a small thing for one person to write a letter or use a reusable cup, or recycle a yogurt cup, but when all of us do it we become a market force and it makes the governments and corporations react in a positive way.

First They Came After Me

First they came for the communists,
I did not speak out;
As I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I did not speak out;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
As I was not a trade unionist.
When they took the Jews,
I did not speak out;
As I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

These words by Rev Martin Niemöller have stood as a warning to pluralistic societies all over world.

With a constitutional amendment on the ballot in Minnesota that proposes to deny some people the right to marry the person they love, this poem needs to be brought to our attention again. This poem should serve as a Red flag whenever a segment of our society is denied rights.

I am not a homosexual. I find the thought of gay sex a distasteful as anyone can, but I also know what it is to love someone with all your heart. There is not one way to express love.  No one can say to me the way I make love to my wife is wrong or evil, because it is born out of love.

Some people say that allowing gay marriage will make their marriage less in some way. I know it will make our marriage stronger and more important because we will share the institution with everyone.

I hope someday soon the Niemöller poem can be revised to:

They freed the homosexuals
I am not gay
But I spoke up.

Speak-up! Vote against this amendment.

Tax the Rich

As our State begins a shutdown due to the pigheadedness of Republicans, it’s time to understand who they are fighting for. I have heard a thousand times “Don’t tax the job creators”. But let’s think about that statement. We are suffering from unprecedented unemployment, corporations and banks are swimming in money, but they are not creating Jobs, why? Because consumers are tapped out, the middle class is cutting back because so many of us are unemployed or under employed we’re not spending any money. The rest of us are afraid we’ll lose our jobs next. Business is having a hard time finding customers. In spite of the improvements in manufacturing, we’re still at about 80% of capacity. If I owned a business I wouldn’t hire anyone if I didn’t think I could keep them busy.

The problem is not that businesses don’t have the money; the problem is that there is no demand.

So if Consumers can’t feed the economy and business can’t or won’t invest, who will make the investments to keep the economy going? Like it or hate it, the only institution able to kick start the economy is the government.

So the idea that 90% of the people in our state should suffer higher tuition, poorer roads, less police & firemen, larger class sizes, less help for the elderly, higher property taxes, have to cut back our family budgets further, and lay off thousands of state workers, so some fat cat can keep a couple percent of income tax is stupid.

To be fair, not all business owners are swimming in money. Many are existing hand to mouth just like many of us. Also, not all, in fact MOST of the wealthiest Minnesotans are NOT business owners. So to tax the wealthy will not affect most businesses and we can create a mechanism to filter out those that are businesses.

So write your legislators and encourage them to move on the budget and stop protecting the wealthy at the expense of the remaining 95% of citizens.

Birds of a feather

My wife and I happened to be in Washington DC when the Rolling Thunder motorcycle parade began it’s endless procession around the mall with Sarah Palin on one of the Harleys. How fitting it is that these two have come together. A half term governor of Alaska who toys with the conservative right and the press for attention and fame, and the cadre of Harley riders who will trailer their bikes across the nation to ride in parade formation, rev their engines, seeking attention, and pretending to be bad boys.

To be fair Rolling Thunder does help veterans and look for missing POWs/MIAs.  As a motorcyclist I would be happy to be part of the demonstration, but I would have ridden there. I also would have been very pissed if I found out after the fact that the event was co-opted by any presidential candidate let alone, an incompetent Sarah Palin.