This ramp-up to 2016 elections has been noted for outrageous statements from the wannabe presidential candidates, most notably from the GOP side.  Just recently Ted Cruz opined publicly that all the criminals are Democrats.  He went on to say that’s why liberals or progressives are so easy on crime and want to reform prisons and reduce sentences.  This buffoon’s bombastic and bloviating blathering (I can alliterate with the best) might have its genesis in the Canadian’s desire to out-trump Trump, but it’s an insult to most of the voting public: does he actually believe any sane person will buy into the sewage effluent springing forth from his mouth?  (Note that I said “sane person”; there are rabid elements in our society who will believe anything—Trump depends on that.)

Only two states allow felons to vote while in prison.  I assume a corollary to that factoid is that only two states allow felons to register as a member of a political party while in prison, but maybe that corollary is wrong.  Some people argue that disenfranchising felons isn’t a good idea—I’m not one of them (if they want their civil rights, they can stay out of prison, except when it comes down to wrongful convictions)—but the current state of affairs implies that the prison population isn’t comprised of registered Democrats.  So, the brilliant senator who should be a terrible embarrassment to the state of Texas (they have to own up to many embarrassments, of course) must be saying that there are criminal elements who haven’t been caught yet…and they’re all Democrats?

I won’t dwell on the absurdities Cruz has said and is saying more than this.  Instead, let me turn the question around: why doesn’t the GOP own up to the criminal label?  Let’s start with the NRA (there are many other examples, including the pro-life rhetoric—the GOP has no commitment to protecting lives AFTER birth!–but the slavish pandering to the NRA is the most deadly one).  Every NRA member is a criminal because s/he enables murderous elements to commit atrocities against innocent victims.  This lobbying group pushes back on every reasonable move to limit arsenals like the one the recent California shooters possessed.  It’s become so bad that the NY Times decided to put an editorial about this on the front page last Saturday (the first one since 1920 and not strong enough in my opinion—I don’t have to coddle readers, but the Times still does).

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It seems every GOP presidential candidate now has a tax reform plan.  Guess who it favors?  Their reforms are all various schemes for shell games designed to redistribute wealth from the middle class to the wealthy, of course.  No one wants to tax the poor because even the GOP knows you can’t squeeze blood from a stone (of course, they still won’t raise the minimum wage either).  But at least the GOP is up front about enriching the elites and robbing the middle class.  The Dems just might be worse because they blather double-speak about helping the middle class out but are beholding to the rich and their special interest groups and lobbyists.  Only Bernie Sanders has eschewed the largesse of the rich elites.  I wonder how long he’ll last.

Wealth redistribution via taxes is insidious.  First, there’s the infamous payroll tax.  If you’re receiving wages from a company or the government, you’re taxed.  But many members of the rich elites pay less tax than you do because of loopholes and other ways accessible to them because they are NOT on a payroll.  Even a poor fast food worker receives a paycheck that has state and local and often city taxes deducted.  S/he might get it all back at the end of the year, but meanwhile s/he’s giving a zero-interest loan to the U.S. government.  And none of this discussion considers percentages.  They’re completely skewed to favor those payroll workers making lots of money, like in high tech.  And don’t forget FICA.  There’s a cutoff for that.  Eliminate it, and Social Security and Medicare would never have any problems keeping up with retirees!

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My father’s opinion of politicians was that they are just failed lawyers.  I say, failed something.  You know this country’s in trouble when the most profound statement in that GOP debate came from our inimitable and mostly absent governor, Chris Christie, who has only been eclipsed as a barking attack dog because Donald Trump is around as a noisier barking attack dog.  This acerbic jerk and not a NJ favorite son said that focusing on Fantasy Football was absurd when there are so many other more important problems around.  Wow!  Of course, he was attacking both CNBC moderators and Jeb?, but even from the blathering mouth of this governor the occasional spittle of truth will spew forth.

Continuing with the governor (and forgetting about the Donald, the other aficionado of insulting rants), Christie actually mentioned ISIS and al Qaeda.  The rest of the GOP anointed mentioned terrorism only peripherally as part of that never-ending Benghazi fixation that they’re using to attack Hillary (that last whole grueling one-day session was a three-ring circus, with GOP inquisitors ending with rotten eggs all over their faces—the wannabe House Speaker had said it’s a witch hunt, and he is right).  While I might be giving Mr. Christie far too much credit, he nailed it: terrorism is the number one issue of our time.  All politicians should realize that; every citizen should too.  And it’s not something to analyze in short soundbites on a debate stage—it requires profound analysis and multi-dimensional thinking, both sorely lacking in this electoral season.

Maybe politicians think that they’re impervious to terrorist attacks when they’re sitting in their cozy little condos and houses in Washington?  They have $150 million dollar blimps loaded with electronics to protect them, right?  They have Pentagon experts at their beck and call, experts who have done such a great job against the Taliban, al Qaeda, and ISIS, right?  The politicians figure that the Middle East is just another way for their masters in the military-industrial complex to make money selling projects to the Pentagon that don’t work.  Everyone’s happy as long as they’re making money, right?

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It’s an ode to biographers instead, and maybe a dirge for the death of an empire.  I just finished Manchester and Reid’s Churchill, Defender of the Realm, 1940-1965 (Last Lion #3).  Phew!  Manchester died before this was finished, and Reid completed the tome.  And tome it is.  Goodreads had it listed as 1237 pages.  That’s a wee bit off because approximately 200 pages are dedicated to notes, bibliography, and index.  Still, with about a 1000 pages of real text, all in a tiny, tiny font, this is a marathon for readers.  But imagine the years spent writing it!  It reminded me of the story of all those Irish monks slaving away and copying the classics while Vikings burned, pillaged, and raped their way through ancient Europe and Eire.  They saved Western civilization.  The two authors I mentioned recorded some of its darkest moments for posterity.

Mind you, old Winston and FDR don’t come across as saints here (but if the pope can canonize a murdering missionary, we can accept these leaders’ sins as blips for two strong personalities who saved the world from the Nazi horrors); on the other hand, we’re allowed to see a lighter side of Papa Joe, the butcher, a man who set the tone for all the mob-style bosses who have since ruled the Soviet Union and Russia, including Putin.  Bottom line: it took those three musketeers and some good generals they commanded, including an aggressive, often self-serving general, Ike, an American of German descent, to beat the Germans.  We gloss over history, often turning it into myths, but this book tells it like it is.

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Let’s give the old guy credit: he was received in the U.S. like a rock star and showed more resilience and stamina than men half his age.  Moreover, he’s speaking out on progressive issues.  On the plane en route to the U.S. from Cuba, a reporter asked if he was a leftist.  He replied something to the effect that everything he does is commensurate with the gospels.  Translation: Christ was a progressive revolutionary AND a religious man.  The two went hand and hand, no matter what conservative wonks think (some are right-wing Catholics, of course).

He’s painted environmental concerns as a moral issue that transcends all religions.  Climate change is a pressing concern for every human being on this planet, not to mention Gaia’s flora and fauna.  It’s the moral imperative of this generation to protect Gaia and all her creatures, according to the pope.  Of course, I didn’t need his encyclical to realize that.  Many people didn’t.  And a few are either too greedy and/or stupid, that they’ll resist that idea until they die, which might be sooner than later if we don’t deal with the pressing environmental problems.

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I guess the Donald believes the adage “Any PR is good PR” (“the Donald” is the New Yorkers’ nickname for real estate mogul Donald Trump, who has his eye set on owning the White House—and turning it into a casino?)  As of today (7/21), he’s leading the other GOP presidential hopefuls in a poll taken after the anti-Mexican immigrant spiel but before the attack on John McCain.  Maybe that will change.  But the GOP has to be careful.  If Trump the Chump leaves the GOP to form a third party, they’re setting themselves up as victims for the third party jinx.  It’s probably more beneficial for them to leave him alone because he makes the other fifteen clowns almost look sane.

Of course, Trump is appealing to the dark side of the GOP with his anti-Mexican immigrant comments.  It’s clear a lot of frustrated, angry people blame immigrants, legal or otherwise, for all their financial woes.  “What the hell?” they say.  “I join a union that’s supposed to protect me, and if the company doesn’t ship my job overseas, they give it to some damn immigrant who’s not even American.”  Never mind that the immigrant works harder for less and is often exploited.  Never mind that the immigrant actually knows how his government functions when s/he becomes a citizen.  Never mind that the immigrants’ sons and daughters go overseas to fight for this country when Trump took five deferments.  Never mind that the disgruntled worker’s family tree contains members who were also immigrants at one time (the only native American is a Native American!)  Every political hack knows how to hide her/his failings by creating a scapegoat and pointing the finger.  And Trump is a political hack.

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