"None of the Above"

Do you recall the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago?  The Vietnam war was taking a toll on the American psyche as those who lived through WWII insisted that their children stand up to Communism just as they had stood against Fascism.  Can you tell me what the Vietnam war was about?  Vietnam is now one of America’s biggest trading partners and Ivanka Trump has some of her clothing line produced in Vietnam.  

Richard Nixon won the ’68 election by promoting a “secret plan” to end the war.  In reality, he was committing treason by sabotaging the Paris Peace Talks.  When President Johnson called Everett Dirksen, the Republican Minority leader in the Senate, to notify him of that treason, Dirksen failed to take any action to stop Nixon.

Four years later I had my first chance to vote in a Presidential Election.  Nixon showed himself to be a liar and CSN&Y sang "Four Dead in Ohio”.  America’s youth were angry and energized, they wanted peace.  The “moral injury” (akin to PTSD but not the same thing) the Vietnam war inflicted on our nation still hasn’t been healed.  It probably won’t be until those who know who Mary Ann Vecchio is are all dead and gone. 

George McGovern ran as the Peace Candidate and was nominated as the Democratic Party Presidential Candidate.  However, the Democratic Party establishment decided they would rather Nixon remain President than they lose control of the party.  Thomas Eagleton was suggested as the nominee for Vice President when all other establishment Democrats demurred.  Whether or not it was that same establishment that revealed Eagleton’s recurring depression, I cannot say, but I do have my suspicions since Sargent Shriver’s, Eagleton's replacement, main claim to fame was that he was a Kennedy in-law.

Flash Forward to the first election of George W. Bush and Judith Miller lying in the New York Times about Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction.  Even though millions around the world protested, Bush still got his war and as many as 600,000 Iraqi's died.

When Air America Radio started broadcasting in 2004 in the wake of George Bush’s lies, there was a brief moment of hope that America might come to its senses.  However, Congressional Democrats and Presidential Candidate John Kerry failed to explain why they voted for the war.  Many voters decided the Democrats had no character and stayed home, allowing Bush to steal a second term in Ohio.  Long after the fact, Clinton justified her vote for the Iraq war by saying Bush lied about it, a trait she is pretty good at herself.  Who didn’t know Bush was lying about Saddam’s “weapons of mass destruction”?  Other than Fox News viewers, of course who decided Clinton was the liar.

When Thom Hartman joined Air America, he had a segment called “Brunch with Bernie”.  Senator Sanders, of Vermont, would take calls from anyone across the nation.  His answers were well thought out, articulate, compassionate, and addressed the issues that concerned me.  Hell, Sanders often identified those issues to me!  I listened to him for over five years.  Never once did I think he was mistaken.  Never once did I imagine him to be insincere.  

When the 2016 Presidential campaign started in the last half of 2015, I was one of those voices urging Senator Sanders to run.  America's youth was again energized, just as it had been in '72.  Aging McGovern supporters awoke from their stupor and started contributing to his campaign.

However, the Corporatists that make up the Democratic Party Establishment wanted Hillary Clinton as their nominee.  

What is a corporatist?  Unfortunately, it is a polluted term that varies in definition depending on who uses it.  In this paper, it is the support of large corporate organizations (run by and for the 1%) to the detriment of the "rest of us" who are not members of that elite economic group.  Corporatists value wealth and power above all; using wealth to obtain power; using power to obtain wealth.  A Corporatist tells you, "It's just Business".  Ask Salvatore Tessio what that means.

Hillary Clinton is a corporatist.  She is well paid by America’s Economic Elite (the 1%).  Fifty, mostly secret, speeches at $250,000 each, goes a long way to assuaging one’s conscience.  As a Corporatist, Clinton is hardly different from Donald Trump in that both believe that what is good for the 1% is good for America.  Even Obamacare still leaves members of the 1% the opportunity to skim off the top of your premiums to enhance their own wealth.  The corporatist 1% is in charge and American voters know it.

Corporatists make more money when there is a war going on.  They use the war to justify spending on useless pieces of expensive machinery like the enhanced X-ray machines used by the TSA to "keep us safe" from the terrorists who want to "kill us" because we invaded their country (not because they "hate our freedoms").  As a corporatist, Clinton supports war.

When Clinton was Obama’s Secretary of State she was not opposed to the “Arab Spring” which expanded the havoc in the Middle East.  Her celebration of the murder of Muammar Gaddafi reveals what I consider to be a deep character flaw.  Such “little girl glee” after someone is murdered should haunt us all.

She must be ashamed of her heavy involvement in the military overthrow of the democratically elected government of Honduras since that chapter was removed from the paperback edition of her book “Hard Choices”.  Berta Caceres won the 2015 Goldman Environmental award for her work against corporatists.  She blamed Clinton for the Honduran overthrow.

Although both Trump and Clinton are corporatists, there are many issues on which Trump and Clinton differ.  Those issues just aren’t the most important to many voters.  I’m not against “gay rights”, but I'm not gay.  Women should receive equal pay for equal work, but I’m not a woman.  I really don’t care which bathroom someone uses.  I very much support family planning, but I believe the Democrats are insincere in their stand.  Even Nancy Pelosi says the issue of abortion is “fading”.  The 1% do not care whether or not the poor have access to family planning.  The rich always have access.  Black Lives Matter to me, but then, I’m not Black.  I have contributed to each of these causes.  I support each of these causes, but my fight remains against the corporatists.  It is often a corporatist who finances opposition to these causes.  We should have common cause against a common enemy and not allow that enemy to divide us.

Unlike the substantive issues for not supporting Clinton, the list of Republican allegations against Clinton, including Benghazi and her “emails”, is very long.  I give none of them credence.  For the most part, they are manufactured truths that have very little foundation.  

Like the Republicans, Clinton does not refrain from “making stuff up” in her attacks on anyone who does not completely support her, including Bernie Sanders.  Former Republican David Brock, who was so instrumental in bringing attention to the the Whitewater Scandal, switched “sides” and founded Correct the Record, a propaganda organization to to carry out "hits" on their opponents such as the misleading and completely false Bernie Bros label.  I am not a misogynist, but Brock has labeled me one.  During the Michigan Primary one of Clinton's more bald-faced lies was the claim that Sanders did not support the auto bailout.  Politifact had to twist itself into knots to declare this to be only half true and not a lie.

I guess though that I am an “old white man”, another argument sometimes used to oppose those who did not support Clinton.  I hardly understand how one can use that argument without confessing absolute ignorance of the real issues.  How can it be that electing a woman President is the "most important" issue if that woman stands for much of what you oppose?  I am an “old white man” and I’ve been lumped into a group that is hated and feared because most corporatists, having no moral compass, are “old white men”.  But it is also true that some members of any religious, ethnic, sexual, age, racial or national group are corporatists who, like Frank Underwood, seek positions of power solely to benefit themselves.  If I wanted to play the “victim card”, I would define a term equivalent to misogyny for those who hate “old white men”.  But that is just as stupid as those who wonder “what is wrong with the millennials,” speaking of an entire generation as if they are all the same and not individuals.

I believe that any job that needs to be done, deserves a living wage, but I also know that there are some people who are totally incapable of performing a job for which I’d be willing to pay $15/hour.  This raises the question of what do you do with those people who aren’t capable?  This question is ignored by both the Republicans and the Democrats.  Remember it was Bill Clinton who ended "welfare as we know it" after Reagan's corporatist lie about Welfare Queens showed him it would win elections.

I believe that one should be rewarded for being better at a job than anyone else.  But there are limits to this.  President Obama was paid $400,000 for a one hour speech to a large, exclusive bank, an amount 10 Kauai residents would be lucky to make in a year.  How is this moral?  How is it moral for those same financiers to use technology to skim a portion of every trade on the stock market as detailed in the book “Flash Boys”?  Those banksters are better at something than anyone else -- fraud.  Hillary Clinton has no answer for these questions.  She just takes their money.

I have been bullied and vilified and called selfish and told that Trump’s win is my fault and not Clinton’s.  I voted for McGovern in ’72, and I voted for the Democratic Nominee in every Presidential election — until 2016, when, like 45% of the 2016 eligible voters, I chose “none of the above”.  In Hawaii’s Presidential Preference Poll, Bernie Sanders received 70% of the vote.  However 8 of 10 Hawaii Super Delegates to the Democratic National Convention voted for Clinton.  How much more clearly can the argument be made that “my vote doesn’t count”?

I remain a Democrat since I do not see a viable alternative. (The Greens are way too small with uninspiring candidates.) I support those Democrats who address the issues I care about such as: Tulsi Gabbard, Jason Kander, Keith Ellison, and those who support "The People's Budget".

I will never again vote for a corporatist.  Bring on Chris Hayes making fun of Susan Sarandon but understand that I consider those angry folks who yell and call voters stupid (as the Daily KOS did) to be equivalent to a serial abuser blaming the victim for their failures.  Get help.

Just like Bill Maher who think’s he is so much smarter than the rest of us that we should submit to his wishes, the corporatist Democratic Establishment does not care about the issues or goals of the "rest of us". 

The establishment needs to acknowledge the "moral injury" inflicted on America.  We are all Americans.  We are responsible for what America does.  When a 500lb bomb is dropped on an Afghan wedding party, it is a moral injury.  The millions that died in Iraq because George Bush wanted to be a "War President", is a moral injury.  Obama's not-so-secret war in Yemen where a drone strike killed an American Citizen, is a moral injury.   These "moral injuries" accumulate, harming everyone so that it is ever so easy to hate anyone who isn't a "Real American" just like you.

Demands that I vote for someone opposed to my moral values is a bit selfish.  Clinton campaigned on, “Trump bad, I’m not Trump!”, which was true, but after forty years of choosing the “lesser of two evils”, I finally recognize that it was still a vote for evil.

If the Democrats want my vote, support my issues.  Put the banksters in jail and stop the waste of money on expansion of the American Empire.

So, with the 2016 election we find ourselves back where we were in 1968.  The Old wondering how the promise ever got so ugly and The Young rejecting the world they have inherited.  Will 2020 be a repeat of 1972?

Yell at me all you want, I will no longer submit.  I was cheated out of the future I was promised.  I will not consent to the theft of that future from coming generations.

aloha,

sometimes little developments that are encouraging need to be noted, including at the very local levels.  Here's a Democracy for America update, which I post with the question for you.  What do you want to see happen?  What rings your bell, makes you smile, encourages you?

June 18, papas' day, is set to foster talk-story about that with you and officers of your precinct, the better to guide our endeavors.

Come for the beer and the hot dogs, but also to talk story.

Michael
President, d16-2

Here's the DFA post in part:

Jim Dean, Democracy for America	12:27 PM (3 hours ago)
to me

Michael --
Progressive leaders won major victories on Tuesday in critical elections across the country -- and DFA members like you helped make it happen:

• Jimmy Gomez won the all-important special election in California's 34th Congressional District. Gomez co-authored the single-payer health care bill that just passed the State Senate, and members like you helped him defeat a Republican-turned-Democrat. This is a big win that helps prove that progressive leadership is the path to power for Democrats.

• Chokwe Lumumba won the runoff election and will become the next mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. Lumumba won on a people-powered left-wing platform of economic and racial justice, taking on white supremacy in the heart of Mississippi -- thanks in part to your donations.

• Aja Brown was re-elected mayor of Compton, California, and will be able to continue her work revitalizing her city and building up the local economy with new, high-wage jobs.

• Progressive candidates in New Jersey backed by DFA had a great primary night, and members like you will be with them every step of the way as we go into the general election this fall.

These are big wins that we should celebrate -- and then pivot to the other key elections coming up this year in Georgia, Virginia, Washington State, Charlotte, Cincinnati,and beyond. Once again, DFA members like you have proven we can elect progressives and build a reflective democracy by helping build winning campaigns focused on real grassroots organizing.

Will you help DFA build on yesterday's victories and win again in 2017? Chip in $3 or more monthly to continue the momentum and build people-powered campaigns across America!

I use this blog as a place to check in and check out what is going on of significance.

That I am posting entirely Alan Grayson's blog today without further comment means that I am totally endorsing the contents of his blogpost.  I find it a useful reminder for all of us.  Besides, I like his standard salutary closing:  Courage!

-- Michael Anthony Joseph Ceurvorst, henceforth in this blog "majc" pronounced "magic", fittingly ironic, because I credit science and hard work over lies and fictitious wishes.

Enjoy the blog-cum-retrospective below:

Dear Michael Anthony,

These seem like desperate times, because they are.  A dangerous fool has taken a four-year lease on the White House.  Dirty Money and gerrymandering have given the Party of Corporate Tools commanding control of both the House and the Senate.  The Supreme Court is dominated by right-wing shills who think that the rich and multinational corporations don’t have enough “rights,” and they intend to solve that problem.

And we just lost a House race pitting our singer in a cowboy hat against their Lord Voldemort lookalike who body-slammed a reporter on the night before the election.

So, no, we don’t live in Utopia, Paradise, Shangri-la, Eden, Wonderland, Heaven or Cloud Nine.  For God’s sake, I wouldn’t even call this Cloud Six.

But be patient.  As Martin Luther King, Jr., put it, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Many of the great progressive ideas that came to fruition in the 20^thcentury had their roots in the 19^th century.  The great progressives of that earlier era promoted the ideals of fairness, opportunity and equality, against a recalcitrant conservative power structure.

Larger-than-life Progressives like Theodore Roosevelt, “Fighting Bob” LaFollette, William Jennings Bryant, Eugene Debs, Upton Sinclair and Woodie Guthrie fertilized the political ground from which sprang women’s rights, the 40-hour work week, child labor laws, the right to organize, a progressive income tax, near-universal healthcare, social security, protection of the environment and civil rights.

In our own time, racial and gender equality have made enormous strides, we’ve had breakthroughs on marriage equality and ending marijuana prohibition, and we’ve taken some baby steps to redress global warming and climate disruption.

These lofty goals were not accomplished overnight.  It took generations of fighting for what was right, on the field of political battle, to accomplish real progress.  The victories of progressives were mixed with many losses.  “Two steps forward, one step back.”  For sure, many great political leaders, always promoting The Cause, won some elections and lost some elections.  But the good ones never gave up.

Not long ago, a political consultant asked me why I write my own emails, and bother to incorporate ideas, principles, metaphors, history, literary and cultural references, figures of speech, and the occasional joke.  Why bother?

I told him that I belong to a group of people who are politically aware and intelligent, and we place our faith in working together to promote justice, equality, compassion and peace.  I don’t have to dumb it down for you.  We’re on the same page.  I “get it,” and so do you.

We progressives have an essential mission, a cause that can withstand the changing winds of political fortune.  For me, for you, for us, it’s the cause that counts, not personal political victories.

What benefit can an elected official have to ‘We, The People,” unless he or she is motivated by – and committed to -- the progressive ideal that everyone should reach his or her full potential, unchained by hunger, racism, poverty, prejudice, ignorance, or poor health?

My loss in my US Senate race last year was no more than a personal bump in the road.  I still have a voice, and I will raise it in support of our shared beliefs and goals.  I will continue our battles for justice, equality, compassion and peace.  Maybe we will enjoy the sweet taste of victory, or maybe that joy will fall to our children.  But we will prevail.  Together, we will prevail.

Courage,

Alan Grayson

"I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are still truly good at heart."

- The Diary of Anne Frank (1944).

Health Care For All Now!

Further to the Schatz post here is Tulsi on this.  We can expect Senator Hirono to weigh in similarly tomorrow if not before:

Michael,

As I am sure you know, Republicans passed a bill yesterday in the House that begins to strip away access to healthcare for millions of Americans, while providing huge giveaways to big pharma and insurance companies. In addition to the age-tax that hurts our seniors, severe cuts to Medicaid, and weakening provisions ensuring those with pre-existing conditions will be covered, 7 million veterans would lose access to health care tax credits. 

Here’s what we know: Our healthcare system is broken. It needs systemic reform. However, the AHCA legislation would only make things worse. What we need is real change that will truly put the health and wellbeing of people over corporate profits. This is why I support the Medicare for All legislation (HR 676).

Will you sign on as a citizen co-sponsor to Medicare for All?

Medicare and Medicaid help nearly 130 million Americans, including 570,000 people in Hawaiʻi, access affordable quality health care. We want everyone to be able to access care through these programs. There is no reason why the health care access available to citizens of so many other developed nations cannot be available to ours.

In order to make this kind of serious change, we need to seriously raise our voices together. As we have learned in the past, the road to improving our health care system is challenging. That’s why it is so important that we act now. Please consider joining us in this critical effort to improve our health care -- not hurt it. Sign on as a citizen co-sponsor.

As always, thank you for your dedication.

Aloha,

Tulsi

SIGN UP

Our Values and our Policies: Health care in U.S.: Moral imperative, moral repulsion

dear citizens all, aloha,

     Seldom do we have such a stark reminder of why we need concerted political action:  the travesty of a bill purporting to provide health care that in fact needs to be vigorously opposed because it is patently destructive to health care in America for those on the middle and bottom rungs of the economic ladder.

     The years-long fight for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) brought together many disparate elements to get part way toward the real moral imperative, health care for all in 21st century America.

     Universal health care represents our values and our driving health care policy in the Democratic Party, from FDR forward.

After signing the ACA , Mr. Obama declared in a phone call to supporters that this was not the bill he wanted to sign, -- he wanted "single payer" -- but he cautioned that progress has always come in increments, whether in civil and human rights, gender equality, voting, social security or health care.

     I regret that we did not work harder to build broader consensus on Medicare/Medicaid for all, but we should not lose sight of the fact that we have already achieved a broad consensus on the idea of universal health care, which must be part of our core platform going forward.

     The attempt to obliterate any achievements of the Obama two-term presidency continues to be an evident driver of the Trump Administration's focus and of the no-longer Grand Old Party's operatives.

     I share the moral outrage palpable in the Washington Post's Plumline piece today and invite all of us to read it twice.

     There are plenty of talking points in this piece for us to use in our conversations, social media, and correspondence.  Check it out!

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/43396-every-republican-who-voted-for-this-abomination-must-be-held-accountable

     Secondly, Senator Hirono will be with us tomorrow on Kauai (see previous posts).  RSVP if you can to ensure your free ticket will get you in even if the event is "overbooked", that is, more want in than there is room for.

     I would be very surprised if she did not agree 100% with senior Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz on what just happened.  His note is below.

     Our questions for Mazie and all our reps have to be: How do we get to universal health care now while defeating the GOP-House passed abomination and hold those who voted for it accountable now and at the polls?

To borrow a legislator's tagline:

Courage!

Michael


from Senator Schatz:

Michael,

Today’s vote by House Republicans to pass “Trumpcare” was appalling. There was no bill text, no cost estimates, and no public hearings. The only thing we know for sure is that it will hurt millions of Americans.

Here’s just a sample of what they passed in the House:

• Making sexual assault and domestic violence a pre-existing condition (that will not be covered).
• Cutting over 800 billion from Medicaid. Targeting the most needy among us.
• Cutting special education funding.
• Instituting an “age tax” allowing insurers to charge older Americans 5 times more than they charge younger Americans.

This is an awful bill, written in a back room, that only serves the wealthy at the expense of everyday Americans. I could not make this legislation worse if I tried.

Now the fight moves to the U.S. Senate. It’s going to take everything we have to stop this bill, and what we all do next will determine the healthcare of millions of people.

I will do everything in my power to stop this disastrous legislation in the Senate, but I can't do it alone. Will you add your name and say you’re ready to do everything you can to resist and fight back? Add your name here.

Republicans hope we back down and give them a victory. Let’s show them we’re just getting started.

Thank you and keep resisting,

Brian Schatz
U.S. Senator

Your thoughts? Suggestions?

Does Hawaii need THAAD? Not Yet.

President Trump is rattling American Sabres at North Korea because of that country's missile program and its efforts to obtain a viable Nuclear weapon.  Kauai residents should be assured that there is little chance today of a North Korean missile, the Musudan which is on a mobile launcher, hitting our shores since it has a range of 2500 miles and the Korean Peninsula is 3500 miles away.  The three-stage Taepodong-2 might be improved enough in the future to be able to reach Hawaii, but it requires a fixed launch site of which there are only two and they are nearly 5000 miles away.

NPR reports that THAAD, which costs nearly $1B per battery, can protect a "bubble" of only 100 miles.  There are 6 known THAAD batteries as of today.  Only one of which is in Hawaii and it was placed at PMRF to test the system not to actually defend against anything.

THAAD is reported to have limited effectiveness against Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles which are defined to have a minimum range of 3500 miles, and so far THAAD has only been tested against Short-Range Ballistic Missiles.   THAAD is not the only ABM system available to the US and South Korea.

South Korea is soon holding elections and the forecast winner of those elections, Moon Jae-in, does not want to pay for a THAAD battery.  Just like Mexico is not going to pay for Trump's wall.  It was deployed by Trump without consultation with the South Koreans.  Recall that Trump is pushing to renegotiate trade deals with South Korea.  Residents of South Korea are protesting the THAAD deployment and saying NO!

China has halted construction projects in South Korea because of their concerns over THAAD radar penetrating deep into China.

THAAD is useless in protecting against the thousands of artillery pieces that are today within range of Seoul, the South Korean capital.  If hostilities break out, North Korea's minuscule ballistic missile system, which has not been shown to be capable of carrying a nuclear weapon, will be the least of the worries.

This deployment will not "Make America Great Again", rather it shows our country as a bully that thinks it can push everyone else in the world around.

Our Representative Tulsi Gabbard, who recently in The Garden Island acknowledged the potential threat from North Korea, correctly I believe, has voted against strengthened sanctions against North Korea.

Additional Information:

This YouTube video gives a brief overview of THAAD and discusses its failures.

• I love Putin's expression when he is told that THAAD is just a jobs program.
• Ted Postol testifies that THAAD is extremely easy to defeat.
• Raytheon has a habit of lying about the success of their ABM tests.

The Missile Defense Agency web site.  Under the "Elements" link you can find a description of the components of the ABM system.

A UPI article on THAAD problems against NK missiles.  Note that this article discusses other missiles than the ones above.

An LA Times article: $40-BILLION MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM PROVES UNRELIABLE.  This article is about the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense System, not THAAD.

• From 1999 through March of this year (2014), Boeing spent $261.6 million on general lobbying of the federal government and Raytheon spent $144.4 million, public records show.
• Though both North Korea and Iran have launched crude unarmed missiles, U.S. intelligence assessments provided to Congress indicate that neither country has the capability to deliver a long-range, nuclear-tipped missile to the United States.
• It typically takes a year or more to disassemble and restore a kill vehicle.
• 
  

More information can be obtained by googling: theodore postol thaad

Dear citizens all,

     What do you want our Congressional Representatives, here Tulsi Gabbard but also Senators Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono, to do, to focus on in May 2017?

     I want them to focus on, to address specifically, Congressional appointment of a special prosecutor with power of subpoena to pursue and to publish the findings of grounds of impeachment and possible criminal indictment of President Donald J. Trump.

     I am very concerned that our top intelligence agencies' conclusion with a high degree of confidence that Russia interfered in our 2016 elections to further Trump's election prospects and to undermine confidence in our democracy is not being adequately pursued in the four Congressional probes underway, largely because they are partisan led and are re-focusing on leaks and on Secretary Clinton, as requested by President Trump.

     Does that not deserve extensive non-partisan investigation for the sake of the country and our democracy?  We need to prevent such efforts continuing in the U.S. and as a Russian tactic to undermine NATO, the EU and the U.S.   The same tactics have been underway as well in France, Austria, the UK, and a Nordic country.

      Treason is at issue if there was collusion of his Presidential campaign with the government or intelligence organs of Russia to influence the outcome of the U.S. 2016 elections.  The direct financial benefits to his campaign manager Manafort, to Trump's National Security Advisor Flynn, and a dozen others affiliated with the campaign form a pattern that is worth pursuing; we need a public accounting.

     Then there are Mr. Trump's in-your-face and persisting violations of the U.S. Constitution's emoluments clause, the suspiciously timed approval of Chinese trademarks for Ivanka Trump's branding while she is working in the Oval Office and while the President of China was visiting, among many other questions about business and financial issues, such as the Pennsylvania Avenue Trump hotel now being used by foreign dignitaries who want to see Mr. Trump.

     I do feel our country is at risk when a president and an adversary try to undermine and intimidate the free press, the judiciary, and human and civil rights, in multiple ways.

     But this is a blog post meant to elicit your views and hopefully enlist your support in speaking with our representatives on this issue, which I consider fundamental.  Impeachment won't happen unless the electorate demands it.

     Your views?

Michael
Michael A. Ceurvorst
d16-2 precinct president


     When Tulsi came to Kauai for her Town Hall at the War Veterans Center, I took notes and spoke with her at the end of the event.  We have spoken many times before.



     My notes below are for reference, recall, and editing.  Missing are ACLU rep Susan Storm's apt question on impeachment and Tulsi's answer that Pence might be worse but she is investigating impeachment because it is something being looked at in several circles.

For a lengthy if rambling overview including both research and journalistic persistence, see Evan Osnos' article in the current New Yorker:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/05/08/how-trump-could-get-fired.
Osnos has been writing about Trump for a long time.  He also mentions American University historian Alan Lichtman's new book, meant as an "how-to" for impeachment.

     Others, such as Kauai Indivisible's Lee Ann Spencer, felt Tulsi's answers, while noddingly right, were too generalized and didn't provide enough specific how-to's in moving forward.

John Zwiebel has a number of useful links and comments I invite him to post here.

Tulsi

The Veterans War Memorial was jam packed.  Tulsi did an initial and intentionally short presentation on herself, her committee assignments, and an update re North Korea as a threat to Hawaii, then opened it up for about an hour of Q&A.  Sheets of red and green construction paper were divided and handed to audience members with the instruction, if you agree with what Tulsi is saying, hold the green up. If you disagree, hold the red up.  Q's were submitted in writing and were allowed from the floor, but there were dozens of questions and only about a dozen got asked and answered, ranging from 

-- her moral compass as a Democrat, [she had no ready answer to the questioner who had voted first for Harry Truman]

-- to Syria visit with Assad and her opposition to wars of regime change, 

--  Bridget Hammerquist's protect-our-waters against the industrial dairy, EPA decimation [reply started with malama aina and to care for, not to use and amuse and ended with "water is life and we cannot forget that'],  

--  to exploitative monopolistic Hawaiian Airways [answer included a HI AL bill she cointroduced to exempt two places from extra taxes that will be put on airline tickets under the designation already enjoyed under "essential air services designation'], 

--  Ray Catania supporter of unionizing asked her stance on HR785, a national right-to-work law meant by GOP to cripple and even eliminate unions [answer:  Tulsi strongly defends and believes in the right of collective organizing and bargaining and so opposes HR 785]

-- Education.  Trump and Ryan budget proposals that would, under DeVos, end all support for teacher education and development entirely and end all funds for after school services [Answer: a real slap in the face to educators and would hurt the very people most in need.  Tulsi referred here as she had elsewhere to touring with Bernie Sanders and education as a right... lots of cheers. Tulsi referred to a very good bipartisan education bill passed the house in 2016 which teachers unions supported but that got killed.  She hopes to bring it back "our responsibility to keiki is not a partisan issue" more cheers]

--  prison reform and juvenile sentencing [Answer:  needs to be part of the entire criminal justice reform, enlisting federal, state and local cooperation.  Current Congress efforts do not address root cause, we need to seek ways to divert juveniles from criminal system. The decriminalization of marijuana at the federal level has not occurred, and while the GOP wants to build more prisons, there are marijuana possession arrests in the U.S. every 43 seconds, ruining so many lives.  Tulsi cited a doctor who said he has never in his 20+ years of practice handled a single life-threatened mj overdose but he handles so many alcohol-related life-threatening cases.  Something is wrong with that, so she is working on removing mj from the fed. designation as a class 1 controlled substance.

--  Russian involvement in Trump campaign and 2016 elections:  [Yes, transparency necessary, must pursue to get to bottom of this.  Must get disclosure of Trump's financial interests.  She's co-introduced legislation to require Pres. to submit annual disclosure of financial interests statements as members of Congress now do.]

--  Medicare for all?  [Yes, her support of Sanders again invoked, again more cheers.  Plus, need to address, in connection with immigration reform, shortage of health care providers, esp. in rural areas, and she backs legislation allowing importation of Canadian prescription drugs that had been forbidden by previous GOP legislation, and must allow Medicare to bargain for Rx drugs.  Health care is a fundamental right.  More cheers]

-- James Armstrong thanked her for votes to keep us out of wars and then focussed on ongoing problems in VA care, citing 22 suicides a day, long wait times, etc. [Tulsi touted VA Accountability Act giving VA Administrator the power to fire and remove bad actors at VA at any level, including the top, and to prevent them from getting bonuses, as now happens, unless issues clarified. Wrong for us not to care for returning fighters. Efforts to provide more care, including for "invisible wounds" when vets return, and she is working for that.

-- Restoration of Glass-Steagall and cutting out or weakening CFSB? [Tulsi:  this is my sixth town hall and the first time this important question has been raised:  She thinks Dodd-Frank needs some tweaks but not abolition, is completely for restoration of Glass-Steagall safeguards/separation, sees needs to keep consumer finance protection.  Does see negative effects of current law on community banks whereby small banks have had to increase compliance officer employees from 2 to 50, in one instance, and thus carry a burden that the big banks easily absorb.  T says there are greater risks now than before with Wall Street remaining unchecked and receiving handouts, unlike the community-based banks. An add-on note:  This is not just a GOP issue.  Too many of her colleagues in the Finance Committees, both Dems and Republicans, seem beholden to financial industry, tied to Wall Street handouts -- she used slightly different words but that was clearly the msg -- so we need the public/grass roots to make their interests clear. 

-- Should Jones Act from the 1920s be repealed as it contributes to huge costs for shipping things to HI? [Tulsi understands the question but still supports Jones Act as relevant now because its fundamental purpose of ensuring a merchant marine available in crises and in war by becoming part of the USN is still a real need, and the Jones Act does support smaller shippers and keeps them going

-- Thank you for "Stop Arming the Terrorists" Bill  [T submitted that with cosponsors because she realized we are funding fighting the terrorists -- Al Qaeda and ISIS are real terrorists who intend to harm and try to harm the US and we need to defeat them -- while at the same time through CIA and others we are funding and arming groups in Syria and elsewhere that are working with or directly part of Al Qaeda and ISIS.  It makes no sense once you realize the contradictions.  Some cheers.]

-- Coalition building? [When in 2013 T. won her Congressional seat and realized how poisonous the partisanship was, she said she asked herself

 "what could I do to carry with her the spirit of aloha and to increase the chances of cooperative work on common problems. I thought I should not overthink this.  So I called my Mom.  Mom, could you make me 435 little boxes of your secret macadamia-nut chocolates? Not even I have that recipe.  She won't give it up. 

 When I explained to her why, she said, OK, honey.  I'll do that. 

Mom, I need them next week.

OK,honey.

Mom, that's not all. Can you also make 435 BIG boxes?  That's for their staffs.

OK, honey.  It will take me a little longer.

So Mom got two big pots going and stirred two pots at a time.  I did a hand-written note with each one, saying something simple like, this is a bit of aloha from Hawaii, a spirit of openness.  I would like to work together.  Within three days we had even senior Republican leaders crossing the aisle and asking where the Hawaii rep with the candies was.  Many said they had eaten the whole box themselves and they needed another one to take home to their spouse.  And oh, what were Hawaii's needs in finance, from those on that committee, or transport....  

So it is not complicated to reach out.  That is a beginning of coalition building, so important now.