In Support of Small 'd' Values

The Intercept's Ryan Grim has revealed that the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee under the direction of Cheri Bustos has created a blacklist of political consulting firms that had worked in support of candidates that would have temerity to challenge Democratic incumbents in primary races. Sadly, this illustrates just how entrenched the Democratic establishment is and how committed they are to preserving a status quo that increasingly fails to reflect the ideology or aspirations of an emerging majority of constituents. Instead of having the courage to welcome new and wildly popular ideas from forward thinking candidates, the DCCC has chosen to operate on the principle of fear while resisting real institutional change. This cowardly myopic approach is exactly what doomed their fortunes in 2016 and threatens to repeat itself in 2020. It's long past time to assert democratic values within the Democratic Party!

Beto Who?

My initial impression of candidate O'Rourke...
A good looking, charismatic, and youthfully enthusiastic guy...I will consider supporting him when and only when he stops speaking in wide ranging albeit hopeful generalities and begins to actually articulate specific policy measures that will address the critical issues of the day.

The Disgrace of Judge T.S. Ellis

Our friend Bob Dylan might have presaged the events in Judge Ellis' D.C. courtroom yesterday in the powerful, The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll wherein the poet recounted in song the injustice of the Maryland court that sentenced plantation owner William Zanzinger to six months in prison for the willful and savage murder of his kitchen maid in a fit of anger while wielding 'a cane that he twirled around his diamond ring finger' as it 'flew through the air, doomed and determined to destroy all the gentle...'

Likewise yesterday, a man's place of privilege was honored by a judge who 'spoke through his cloak, deep and distinguished, and handed down strongly for penalty and repentance': Paul Manafort with a 47 month sentence, drastically reduced from the prescribed sentencing guideline of 15-25 years. Like the Maryland court of old, Judge Ellis 'pounded his gavel in the courtroom of honor, to show that all's equal and that the courts are on the level and that the ladder of law has no top and no bottom; and that even the nobles get properly handled once the cops have chased after and caught 'em'...stared at the person who defrauded the American people of 30 million dollars, 'who just happened to be feeling that way without warning' and allowed him to pass with a shamefully light sentence while thousands of people of color continue to languish in prisons all over the land for longer durations as a result of convictions for offenses of much less magnitude.

So in the wake of the injustice on full display in our nation's capital yesterday, we can say in sad voices and with heads bowed, to all those who 'philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears' that today you may 'bury the rag deep in your face; for now is the time for your tears'!

When Will They Ever Learn

In response to my second cousin's appeal to end the two decade long war in Afghanistan and to retroactively compensate veterans for the their service, I offered this accompanying observation...

The concept of endless war for endless peace first coined by the great Gore Vidal was always intended as a diversionary battle cry to enable those in the vast military-industrial complex (not my characterization but rather that of General Dwight D Eisenhower) to reap the monetary benefits of international conflict while subjecting yet another generation of young Americans to the horrors of war. It is always the old men in soft chairs who send the young and upright into the caldron so that another round of callus profit taking might be secured and the barbaric institution of war be perpetuated.

Among the first victims of war are those who are sent to participate in it. Every effort to support these individuals who continue to suffer the horrible effects of combat long after the event has passed should be embraced as a bottomline responsibility of those whose goal is to provide care, compassion, and healing to the wounded; or as Dylan would say: 'to each and every underdog soldier in the night'. And, together with poet, we might collectively 'gaze upon the chimes of freedom flashing'.

Misplaced Assignment of Blame

The conflation of legitimate criticism of the government of Israel with anti-semitism is a deliberate attempt to silence the opposition to the current/past US policy of lock-step support for one side of the Israeli/Palestinian issue. Moreover, to equate Representative Ilan Omar's recent remarks (for which she has taken responsibility) with the hateful and racist statements regularly uttered by White Nationalists and the anti-immigrant and xenophobic rhetoric coming from the highest levels of our current government is to further demonize a member of a religion already subject to decades of abuse at the hands of an intolerant minority in the long and shameful aftermath of 9/11.