Ralph Nader could have been addressing any meeting of the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus with this essay.

Nader, in Citizens Getting Justice Done, writes:

Far from the corrosive political circus unfolding in Washington, DC, local citizen groups are improving conditions for the people in their own backyards. Although they receive almost no national media attention, these stalwart citizens work tirelessly to make their country a safer, cleaner and more just place to live. One shining example of such a citizen is Tom “Smitty” Smith of Texas, who has advanced this noble work for the last 31 years.

As director of Public Citizen’s Texas office (see citizen.org), Smitty has an uncanny civic personality that has helped win victory after victory for the people of the Lone Star State.

Here is his basic, motivating philosophy: “The only way to beat political corruption and opposition is with organized people. Time after time I have seen a small group of citizens organize and speak out, and change happens. Our job as citizens is to take back our government and keep our government open, honest and responsive.”

Smitty is too modest to add that this is what he’s done for the past three decades working out of Austin, Texas. He is a symbol of integrity and hard work, walking the corridors of the state capitol with his signature big white cowboy hat.

Smitty practices what he preaches! He has co-founded and mentored 13 nonprofit organizations including Solar Austin, Clean Water Action in Texas, Texas Ratepayers Organized to Save Energy and the Sustainable Energy & Continue Reading »

Last evening at the Middleburg Heights meeting of the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, those in attendance were asked if the organization ought to reach out to Trump voters. Some thought we should, but I preferred the option of gathering in all the disaffected and ignored progressives in our communities first. Perhaps some Trump voters can be enticed back to reality—…that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away according to Philip K. Dick—but I think there are a lot of people willing to respond first before we put all that energy into changing the minds of people who think reality is subjective.

I’m sorry, not really, but I couldn’t help playing off of Sarah Palin’s hopey-changey quip from Tea Party convention in 2010.

Our Revolution, and the very vocal and always present push back to President Donald John Trump’s wrong-headed belief that he’s the CEO of a corporation and not the head of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States of America—two very different jobs Mr. President—is forcing a little sunshine into Trump’s private movie.

Amanda Holpuch, in Obamacare: Trump pushes back plan to replace legislation as popularity grows for The Guardian, ledes:

Donald Trump’s comments on Sunday suggesting that a replacement for Obamacare may not arrive until 2018 coincides with crowds turning out to pressure Republicans not to scrap the system too hastily.

On the campaign trail, Trump repeatedly promised one of his first actions as president would be to simultaneously repeal and replace the landmark healthcare legislation – a plan that was heartily endorsed by Republican lawmakers.

And as recently as mid-January he told the Washington Post he was near completing a plan which would provide “insurance for everybody”, without revealing details.

But in a Fox News interview that aired Sunday night, Trump said of replacing Obamacare: “In the process and maybe it will take till sometime into next year, but we are certainly going to be in the process. It’s very complicated.”

He continued to say it would “statutorily take a while” to get a new healthcare plan.

“We’re going to be putting it in fairly soon, I think that, yes, I would like to say by the end of the year at least the rudiments, but we should have something within the year and the following year,” Trump said.

Will this piss off his base? Nah, they’re so deep in their cognitive dissonance that being hunted by cyborg billionaires couldn’t shake their support.

I’ll be attending the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus membership meeting this evening in Middleburg Heights. In addition to talking about Representative Jim Renacci and Ohio’s 16th Congressional District, I’ll be adding my letter to Senator Rob Portman encouraging him to vote no on the appointment of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court of The United States. Here’s copy of my letter:

The Honorable Rob Portman
United States Senate
Washington DC 201510

6 February 2017

Dear Senator Portman:

I write to you this morning to encourage you to vote no on the appointment of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court of The United States.

There are several reasons why I feel Judge Gorsuch is a bad choice for our highest court, but I would like to focus on one that I think will speak to you and your family: the Constitutional right of members of our LGBTQ community to fair and equal access to all rights enjoyed by citizens. In Obergefell v. Hodges, a divided court ruled on 26 June 2015 in favor of all citizens’ rights—as guaranteed by the 14th amendment to our Constitution—to enter into legal union of marriage.

The right to same-sex marriage is now the law of the land, but Judge Gorsuch, and his influence on his mentor, Justice Anthony Kennedy, could threaten that ruling, and others not yet before the court, in ways that will cause very real harm to members of the LGBTQ community.

I ask you today to carefully consider what a Justice Gorsuch would mean to your family and the families of all Ohioans.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Please write your own letter…

Jonathan Freedland’s First on the White House agenda—the collapse of the global order. Next, war? for The Guardian was recommended to me by someone whose opinions I esteem. Freedland’s litany of existential threats rising from the presidency of Donald John Trump—and Trump’s Gríma Wormtongue Steve Bannon in particular—are real.

…Steve Bannon, the man rapidly emerging as the true power behind the gaudy Trump throne. Given Bannon’s influence – he is the innermost member of the president’s inner circle and will have a permanent seat on the National Security Council, a privilege Trump has denied the head of the US military—it’s worth taking a good look at the books on his bedside table.

Close to the top of the pile, according to this week’s Time magazine, is a book called The Fourth Turning, which argues that human history moves in 80- to 100-year cycles, each one climaxing in a violent cataclysm that destroys the old order and replaces it with something new. For the US, there have been three such upheavals: the founding revolutionary war that ended in 1783, the civil war of the 1860s and the second world war of the 1940s. According to the book, America is on the brink of another.

You’ll notice what all those previous transformations have in common: war on an epic scale. For Bannon, previously impresario of the far-right Breitbart website, that is not a prospect to fear but to relish. Time, which has Bannon on the cover, quotes him all but yearning for large-scale and bloody conflict. “We’re at war” is a favourite Bannon slogan, whether it’s the struggle against jihadism, which Bannon describes as “a global existential war” that may turn into “a major shooting war in the Middle East”, or the looming clash with China.

Freedman goes on to bring global events in The European Union (Brexit), Eastern Europe (Putin), Asia (China) and the Middle East (ISIS) into focus as greater threats. His conclusion, however, is wrong, or at least wrongheaded. He writes:

All this leaves liberals and the left in an unfamiliar, unwanted position. Progressives seek progress: their preferred stance is advocating for change, for improving on the status quo. But the great shifts of 2016 have left them – us – in a new place. Suddenly we find ourselves campaigning not for what could be, but for what was.

That is giving up. Trump and his Grima Wormtongue will not be stopped by progressives digging in and trying to hold onto anything. As General George S. Patton told his troops, we’re not holding anything. Our Revolution is not about clutching our past successes. Our Revolution is about advancing the progressive agenda on every front. Let Trump, Bannon and the Koch brothers try to hold onto their pathetic trophies.

Not, perhaps, since the presidency of Richard Milhous Nixon have the citizen of the United States of America faced such a crisis. We will not come out of this better without a fight.

We all must decide, just whose side we’re on.

From the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus:

Tell Senator Portman you Oppose Trump’s Supreme Court Pick.

On Tuesday, February 14th (Valentine’s Day), the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus and Indivisible Cleveland are delivering 1,000 handwritten “We love America and oppose Judge Gorsuch” notes to Senator Portman’s office.
Please, handwrite or type a note to Senator Portman. Some of the reasons people give for opposing Judge Gorsuch for the Supreme Court are these positions:

Arguing against working people and for large corporations;

Opposing equal protection for LGBTQ Americans;*

Ruling against women’s access to basic health care;

Holding theories that oppose clean water and air, safe food and medicines.

[*I think that, given that his son, Will Portman, came out six years ago and that as a result of conversations with his son, Rob Portman publicly changed his position on same-sex marriage four years ago, this argument is particularly significant to Senator Portman. On Valentine’s Day would this father support a Supreme Court nominee who might make his son’s marriage to the man he loves illegal? JH]

Write a short letter, one to three paragraphs. Put your name and address on the envelope, and if you can, put your contact information in the letter. Also ask questions in the letter that will force Portman’s staff to think before they answer. Get family and friends to also write.

How to get your letter to us:

Hand it to us at the CCPC Congressional District meeting at which you receive this request.

West siders can drop it in the mail chute of the CCPC office, 11910 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood, until noon on Monday, 2/13.

East siders can drop it off at:

—The Coffee House Cafe, 4–7 p.m., Tuesday, February 7th, 11300 Juniper Rd. Cleveland. Continue Reading »

So, writing in a letter-to-the-editor in my hometown newspaper, The Marietta Times, my representative in Congress, Jim Renacci, (R-OH), expresses concern about saving coal jobs in Ohio. Here’s a question: how many coal jobs are there in Renacci’s district?

I may be wrong, but I’ve been unable to identify any active coal mines in Ohio’s 16th District. Why is Renacci suddenly so interested in coal jobs? Perhaps because the owners of Ohio (and other) mines are making contributions to Renacci’s war chest? Perhaps because he owes favors to representatives who—like fellow Republicans Brad Wenstrup (OH-2), Bob Gibbs (OH-7) and Steve Stivers(OH-15)—do have active coal mines and coal miners in their districts? Given the choice of The Marietta Times, however, my money is on Bill Johnson (OH-6).

Renacci’s letter is as good an example of fawning misdirection and obfuscation as can be found. Take just his opening paragraph:

Coal has provided almost half of America’s electricity over the past decade. [That is, of course, no justification for continuing that reality. Would Renacci agree that since a Democratic President governed our great nation for the past eight years, somehow that reality ought to have been perpetuated? I think not. JH] This affordable natural resource [Coal is now more expensive (and getting more so daily) than solar power. JH] is an integral part of our domestic energy portfolio, and technological improvements mean coal is burning cleaner today than ever before. [Thanks to decades of stringent Federal regulations and the Environmental Protection Agency that President Donald John Trump (and Renacci) seek to dismantle. JH] In fact, coal plants built today can be [But are not likely to be, thanks to additional costs/draw downs on profits. JH] as much as 99% cleaner than ones built 40 years ago. [In 2011, coal burning plants in the United States dumped 1.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide into our air. If we were to magically make those plants 99 percent cleaner, then we would reduce those emissions to 17 million tons of carbon dioxide. Better, if we had the ability to force (through regulation) the coal companies to actually do that, but still not acceptable. JH]

I could go on and on and on. Fisking Renacci’s letter is like shooting the proverbial barreled fish.

Jim Renacci has no interest in protecting jobs other than his own. He is only interested in protecting the profits of his corporate masters. If my representative were actually interested in protecting jobs, and not profits for billionaires, then he would sponsor a bill providing for the education and support of coal workers so as to minimize the disruption of their lives and the lives of their families and their communities as we rapidly wean our already great nation off of coal and redirect our efforts to 21st century industries and growth.

Previously…

I’m fond of suggesting that any day you wake up is a good day. The rest is all gravy. John Burnside, writing in Writing is what I steal from the usual flow of things for The Guardian’s My Writing Day series takes a similar line’

In the final analysis, that probably says it all: a good writing day is a day with the fewest interruptions, mixed with a sense of gratitude, just for being able to put pen to paper.

I need to work on framing my day to minimize those interruptions.

It looks as if the Plain Dealer wants to start a bandwagon effect for the re-election of sub-par mayor Frank Jackson. He’s a man who has overstayed his welcome. My opinion.

Columnist Mark Naymik in a piece today—Mayor Frank Jackson can’t be a reluctant candidate if he wants to win fourth-term—made it appear that Jackson has worked miracles with financing. Hardly.

The prominent front page Forum piece is accompanied by a 6-1/2 inch deep, page wide head shot of a serious, somber Frank Jackson.

Nice if you can get it. Jackson has been getting it from the Plain Dealer. For much too long.

Naymik labels Jackson a “reluctant” candidate. I’d say he’s a guy who likes the trapping of city hall much too much. Reluctance doesn’t suit him.

He’s no tax magician either.

Truth is he’s raised taxes with a 25 percent payroll tax, successfully backed a 15-mill school property tax increase (twice), inaugurated a tax on city garbage pickup, strongly backed a 20-year extension of the sin tax for sports billion and millionaires, colluded in the sales tax increase for the convention center/med mart & county hotel, and backs a hefty new bond borrowing for some unnecessary fix-up of the Quicken Arena, which will cost tens of millions of dollars without touching the $260-million sin tax take.

He’s a tax hawk. Is there a highly regressive tax he doesn’t like? He’s been a toady to the powerful.

To say nothing of the shabby job he’s done governing the city.

Jackson’s indifference to the costs of his closing of Superior Avenue to RTA buses shows his limited vision. He laughingly raised the threat of a terrorist attack Continue Reading »

David Graham, writing in The Obama-Trump Truce Is Already Over for The Atlantic, explains:

Despite Barack Obama’s attempts to build a rapport with Donald Trump during the presidential transition, and despite Trump’s public gratitude, the tradition seems moribund now.

Obama had already declared his intention to deviate from tradition “if there are issues that have less to do with the specifics of some legislative proposal or battle, but go to core questions about our values and our ideals.” He has already broken his silence once, with a spokesman issuing a statement on protests last weekend over Trump’s immigration executive order. “President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country,” the statement said, calling the demonstrations “exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.”

But if Obama is willing to fire a broadside at his successor, Trump’s administration has shown its willingness to attack Obama in terms that are equally harsh, or even harsher. But if Obama is willing to fire a broadside at his successor, Trump’s administration has shown its willingness to attack Obama in terms that are equally harsh, or even harsher. In a statement on Wednesday about Iran conducting a ballistic-missile test, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn spent nearly as much ink blasting Obama’s policies as he did the Iranians

So, here’s why the ceasefire collapsed:

Obama had already declared his intention to deviate from tradition “if there are issues that have less to do with the specifics of some legislative proposal or battle, but go to core questions about our values and our ideals.” He has already broken his silence once, with a spokesman issuing a statement on protests last weekend over Trump’s immigration executive order. “President Obama is heartened by the level of engagement taking place in communities around the country,” the statement said, calling the demonstrations “exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.”

President Donald John Trump does not suffer insults, of any form, with kindness. He hits back. Hard, or, in what may his newest favorite phrase (and one I never ever want to hear him utter), favors a nuclear option.

An important question is going to be is who carries the bigger stick—Trump, with a 45 percent approval rating, or Obama, with a 59 percent rating?

Remember, with Trump, size always, always counts.

My representative in Congress, Jim Renacci (R-OH) has sponsored House Resolution 761 To prohibit the use of premiums paid to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation as an offset for other Federal spending.

Huh?

As of this morning the:

…text has not been received for H.R.761—To prohibit the use of premiums paid to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation as an offset for other Federal spending. Bills are generally sent to the Library of Congress from GPO, the Government Publishing Office, a day or two after they are introduced on the floor of the House or Senate. Delays can occur when there are a large number of bills to prepare or when a very large bill has to be printed.

So, what might Renacci be sponsoring?

Well, the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation

…protects the retirement incomes of more than 40 million American workers in nearly 24,000 private-sector defined benefit pension plans. A defined benefit plan provides a specified monthly benefit at retirement, often based on a combination of salary and years of service. PBGC was created by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 to encourage the continuation and maintenance of private-sector defined benefit pension plans, provide timely and uninterrupted payment of pension benefits, and keep pension insurance premiums at a minimum.

PBGC is not funded by general tax revenues. PBGC collects insurance premiums from employers that sponsor insured pension plans, earns money from investments and receives funds from pension plans it takes over.

The inference there is that Renacci thinks that someone (my guess would be Democrats) are borrowing from PBGC premiums to fund other projects. The question is, of course, specifically who and for what purpose?

Renacci first introduced the legislation last April. Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY) introduced similar legislation last July.

So far I’ve only found one news story about the bill: ‘Off Budget’ PBGC Premiums Viewed As Essential By DB Industry. I’ll be looking for more—especially at the original legislation in both the house and senate last year—to find some clarity.

I did find this telling in the piece regarding Enzi:

In recent years, Congress [Democrats? JH] has increased the PBGC premiums several times in order to offset increased spending; most recently increasing premiums through 2025 by $7.65 billion in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015.

Confronting these challenges, S. 3240 would ensure that premiums paid to the PBGC are no longer counted as general fund revenue, eliminating the motivation for legislators to raise premiums in order to pay for unrelated initiatives and programs.

In a letter to Enzi, industry groups thanked him for introducing the legislation. “Eliminating the ability to ‘double-count’ these premiums for other spending will keep lawmakers from using pension plans as a piggy bank,” said Lynn Dudley, senior vice president, global retirement and compensation policy for the American Benefits Council.

In the story concerning Renacci’s original bill, I found:

“The Pension and Budget Integrity Act simply moves these premiums ‘off-budget,’ and ensures that Congress is raising premiums only if and when it is appropriate.”

In a statement, the ERISA Industry Committee, the American Benefits Council, the American Retirement Association, the Committee on Investment of Employee Benefit Assets, the National Association of Manufacturers, the Society for Human Resource Management, and U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the Act would ensure any future pension premium increases are only used towards retiree payments from the PBGC and not double counted for budget scoring purposes, which was the original intent of Congress when the PBGC was created in 1974.

“Discipline is needed to ensure that PBGC premiums are used solely to protect the pension system and not as a budget gimmick to pay for unrelated federal programs,” says Annette Guarisco Fildes, president and CEO of the ERISA Industry Committee. “The predictability of costs is critical as employers weigh whether to continue sponsoring defined benefit plans and there is nothing predictable about Congress raising premiums at any time to pay for other programs.”

This is starting to make more sense. My read is that businesses (and remember, Renacci is a former car dealership owner) view the premiums as a tax and, as such, an imposition on their profits. Neither story provides any insight as to precisely why the premiums went up or where the money is going.

I just have to keep digging.

Previously…

From The Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus:

Emergency Rally Todayt! March for Refugees and Sanctuary. 4 to 6 pm @ corner of West 25th St. and Lorain. The new US president is moving forward on his walls, blocking refugees, punishing sanctuary cities and islamophobic policies. A coalition of human rights groups are calling on people of conscious to take part in this rally/march and contact legislators to resist fear and hate mongering policies and rhetoric. Sponsored by Cleveland Jobs with Justice, Dream Activist Ohio, Greater Cleveland Immigrant Support Network, The Interreligious Task Force on Central America and Columbia, Lorain Ohio Immigrant Rights Association, Ohio Voices and Others.

Special Thanks to all of you who came out to the Cleveland Airport Rally last Sunday to join thousands of others at airports around the country to soundly reject Trumps Executive Order banning refugees from Muslim countries. Hundreds protest Trump travel ban at Hopkins Airport describes the event.

CCPC News

CCPC Members visit The Swamp, aAlso known as Washington DC. Yesterday, CCPC members Debbie Lattau, Dennis Slotnik, Diane Morgan. Janet Garret, Tammy Kennedy, Dr. Ras Matunji, Steve Holecko and Tristan Rader spent the day on Capitalist Hill (also known as Capital Hill) lobbying legislator’s to restore checks on the banking industry that were place in the Glass-Steagall Act before it was repealed. The day began with conversation with Senator Rob Portman. Portman said he knew of Continue Reading »

I first posted this on 23 May 2016.

Clearly, Oliver was optimistic about there actually being a chair of the Democratic National Committee by today. Donna Brazile remains the interim chair with a looming battle among a Republicanesque field. My favorite is Keith Ellison.

I couldn’t come up with direct email addresses for Brazile, but you can contact the DNC here. Because revealing your email address will unleash a shit storm of annoying fundraising emails from the DNC, I strongly encourage you to use, as I do, a spamhole gmail account similar to my ineverevercheckthisemailbox@gmail.com.

As for the Republican National Committee—there must be one or two Republicans who read my blog—you should contact the new chair: Ronna Romney McDaniel—niece of former Massachusetts governor (and 2012 presidential candidate) Mitt Romney—here.

Ralph Nader, writing in Flailing Trumpsters Upset a Hijacked Nation, looks at President Donald John Trump’s first two weeks in the Oval Office:

The Trump Gang, hardly two weeks in the White House, is giving strong, petulant signals that it is hijacking the checks and balances of our democratic institutions. Coupling the Boss’s easily brusiable ego, marinated in infinite megalomania, with ideologues harboring objectives that would have frightened Nixonites and Reaganites alike, a runaway train is leaving the station.

After unexpectedly winning the Electoral College but decisively losing the popular vote, Trumpsters are wasting no time. They are undermining the efficacies of the civil service, the Congress, the media, organized labor, and soon the federal courts, while already betraying desperate Trump voters (many of whom cast a vote against Hillary Clinton) with their version of the imperial corporate state, led by corporatists and militarists.

Looking at the Trump regime clinically, there is a method to their madness. Striving to govern early by a stream of poorly written Executive Orders (dictates), their basic message to all is “get with the program or get out.” Building on past precedents of presidential lawlessness, Trump wants to rule by directives and Continue Reading »

I think I first considered the narrow-boat lifestyle while watching the PBS Inspector Morse series. To my mind, the combination of tiny-house simplicity and the adventure of regularly changing the view from your front porch seems perfect.

Good on Rodney Axson. The young man took a national protest movement—launched by NFL Quarterback Colin Kaepernick last August—local when he followed Kaepernick’s example and took a knew during the singing of the Star Spangled Banner. By doing so, Axson demonstrated his character and others have noticed.

Jen Steer, reporting in Brunswick football player threatened for kneeling during anthem gets full scholarship for WJW, writes:

The Brunswick High School football player who was threatened after kneeling during the national anthem received a full scholarship.

Rodney Axson Jr. signed a letter of intent to attend Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina on National Signing Day Wednesday morning.

I sincerely hope that others learn from Axson’s bravery.

This is my exercise in shoveling out the blogpile…

Mayor Frank Jackson has become too enamored of himself.

He has been, at best, a mediocre mayor. At worse, he’s been a mayor too taken by his own mediocrity to recognize he’s been a failure where he was most needed to succeed.

That’s the place he’s from—the most impoverished part of Cleveland’s inner city.

Instead of championing the needs of those with the most severe problems and living conditions, he has been the champion of those who have power.

He has been a servant of the powerful. Obedient. Subservient. Ridiculous.

He remains quiet at the very time when the powerless needed a voice and a fighter for them.

How could a man of the people allow a 65-car, 127-bullet police chase ending in the brutal killing of two citizens by elevating the police leaders of that time? Rewarding failure.

He’s done that with the airport, water department, a left-over Michael White tired staff.

How could a man representing in large part the minority community fail to fire two police officers who so erroneously shot within two seconds Tamer Rice, a 12-year old?

Now, two years later the two remain Cleveland police officers.

On the other hand, this leader has prostrated himself before the corporate community.

Fifty years after Carl B. Stokes made history by being elected the first black mayor of Cleveland promised Power, as he said in his memoir, we have as one of Continue Reading »