Red State/Blue State

One thing I have not heard of late was the reminder that the first model for Obamacare was  based on a proposal originally made by two Republican Senators way back when Bill Clinton was President. That's how far we've come, or how low the bar has dropped, as we trudge through this messy fight that began when the Tea Party hit the streets en masse to protest Obamacare. Now we have come full circle, as the left and the rest of the health care advocates are taking to the streets and flooding the air waves to stop the repeal of Obamacare. A few things missing in the fight are honesty and candor, both on the part of the political operatives and the media as this fight continues.... It's well known inside the beltway that when and if Obamacare goes down in defeat, the Democratic Party will have no choice but to embrace the single payer system. The Republican Party realizes that this is not really a fight about health care, but about taking the money that is in Medicai...

Former Vice President Al Gore asks three vital questions during the course of his TED talk: Do we really have to change?; Can we change?;  and Will we change? He explores these questions through some anecdotes but mostly with a daunting barrage of statistical data from around the globe. The statistics not only highlight the need for change, as he lays out the predicate in his opening remarks, but they also serve as a Call to Action as we are watching this TED talk. Gore then goes to the more hopeful and relevant points that list the ways we are changing. Not only is the reality of climate change not a political issue, nor is it even a scientific question at this point, but it has become a major economic issue and one that even the greatest military force ever assembled, the United States Military, has conceded is a real challenge. So there are many hopeful elements listed in this presentation from Al Gore. Gore has made it his mission, since losing the Pr...

The 100 days have come and gone. Some of the news of the moment has been condensed for this month’s RS/BS Newsletter for April.   What could Possibly Go Wrong? The newly appointed head of the EPA-Scott Pruitt has begun his assault on Environmental Protections for the US. First, Research & Development, along with water quality studies have been eliminated (Tell the people of Flint that we don’t need such things, right?) Trump has ordered Federal Agencies to stop using the Social Cost of Carbon -the estimated economic cost of emitting 1 ton of carbon into the air-as the measure which they have used to help big business to pollute at will. What could Possibly Go Wrong? The Trump Administrations anti EPA wants to gut Obama's Clean Power Plan , a nod to big coal and other polluters. And there is a bill up now from Representative. Lamar Smith called the HONEST Act- which is designed to prevent the EPA from even using sound science as the measure in studyi...

Wouldn't it be nice if …remember the old Beach Boys song? It was part of the film, " Roger & Me"  that highlighted the musings of one laid off worker who thought about it in terms of going back to the way things were in his youth, when Flint, Michigan was still a bustling hub for the automobile industry. In the same vein, my musings were: Wouldn't it be nice….if politicians stopped using health care as a political weapon and worked together to help create an affordable and viable health care system for all Americans that was designed to promote optimum well-being and good outcomes? Wouldn't it be nice…if people could work out their differences by simply admitting we have different views, but we all would like to protect Americans and continue to build our communities and keep our standing in the world of being a beacon of hope and inclusiveness? Wouldn't it be nice…if people could look at the other side of the aisle and recognize their problem...

The myth of the 'genius" business manager running the government has long been discussed. A lean and calculating business mogul, with a wolf-like demeanor akin to the "Wolf" of Wall Street, a person that knows the ins and outs and how business operates is the reason many people thought that someone like a Ross Perot or a Michael Bloomberg could run a better kind of government. Now, that charge has been left to the Donald. He is the same man who ran a successful operation on reality TV. A man whose father bailed him out of many failed business ventures, including casinos in Atlantic City. And who has touted the advantage of bankruptcy and borrowing, with leverage of going into enormous debt. His book, the "Art of the Deal" was a marketing tool he used in his pitch as a front man where he has been successful in leasing the Trump name in building ventures spanning the globe. This has been a successful operation that has catapulted his family busines...

If you are President, or a close member of the inner circle, you really do not want to see the kind of headlines that have been popping up everywhere after the one month anniversary of being in Power. They include the following:  1)  They are taking bets now in top betting houses as to how soon you  will be impeached. 2) Questions are being raised in a serious manner, even from Congress,  about the President's mental state…Is he crazy or not? 3) Openly wondering why someone who is "normal" would accept a job  working in your Administration 4) Intelligence agencies are reported to be withholding information  from the President's Administration-for lack of trust as to what he might do with the information! 5) Which "Steve" is crazier? Bannon or Miller?! 6) Which Cabinet pick will go down next? 7) How long before the President's own party turns against him? 8) Why does the US President seem to favor Russia over his own country? 9) Which of o...

On the infamous tape, Trump displayed a shocking lack of moral judgment and respect for women. What he said showed not simply gross and flagrant disregard for women, but an inability to handle Power  in any form. Even for a small-screen TV star, he couldn't handle the power given to him to simply divulge his anecdotes in a discreet manner. The power of his position went straight to his head and fed his over-sized ego. For me, the biggest "tell", the takeaway was this: Trump said, " They let you do anything you want because you're a star."  So the lack of judgment he showed somehow correlated with the appalling and deplorable lack of judgment exhibited by tens of millions of voters who saw the tape, knew of its existence, and somehow managed to vote this man into the most powerful position in the world. It says something about the lack of judgment and discernment of a large sector of American voters. I have heard the arguments about the Rust Belt vote...