Red State/Blue State

There is much fear and anger of ‘the other’ that seems to be generated by this Administration and the entire GOP Congress running in 2018. And the Democrats are not always effective in countering any kind of attack that has been leveled against them. For instance, in the Senate race in Florida, there should be some debate, one week from the midterm election, about gun control. We have had the Trayvon Martin killing, the Pulse Nightclub attack and most recently the Parkland High shooting, along with the controversial “Stand Your Ground” law that has been the basis for many trials and deaths where this law has been invoked, including the Trayvon Martin trial. There has been very little discussion about the need in the Florida Legislature to adequately address gun control in Florida. And the need is greater than ever. The recent ads and DeSantis’ attacks on Gillum, as well as the back and forth from Scott and Nelson has been inadequate...I wish Nelson would talk abou

Under the Radar: The point of Under the Radar stories is that some of these stories in our online magazine are going under the radar about many of the under-reported issues that we know should receive more coverage. In Europe, there is not simply the Brexit trouble in the UK, but the fact that our European trading partners have had to move on and renegotiate among themselves. Immigration is a huge issue overseas, as it is here. But Income Inequality in the US is still much more pervasive, as they have universal health coverage in Europe and other benefits for citizens. And Steve Bannon has stirred up trouble in the EU by promoting his brand of populist upheaval in Europe.  Here in the US, California has some burgeoning issues, such as problems with a high speed rail system, as well as the phenomenon of Silicon Valley bringing both good and bad disruptions to the state. Other regions that are unstable are the Pakistan border, and we all remember that Osama Bin Lade

I've been thinking about the bipartisan messaging we have been hearing all week long.  There is some strong indications that we are getting ready to hear a backlash to the extreme partisanship that has taken hold of not only Washington, but has infiltrated all of our politics over the last ten or twenty years. The rise of the internet, and the extreme partisan political fights that have taken root from the days of Watergate through to the impeachment of Bill Clinton and on into the Bush years have contributed to this partisan divide. It didn’t help matters when we had the 2000 election debacle with hanging chads and the too close to call Election night and on into the years of Obama and finally the 2016 Election, which was filled with online back and forth bickering and gerrymandered districts and another indecisive win where the popular vote and the Electoral College were out of sync, All of these things were factors that have brought us to this pass. In this atmo

Here’s the list I have for those who are on the other side of the aisle from me regarding politics this season. I have come up with a list of outstanding values and things we have in common with those who we feel we cannot talk to from ‘the other side’ of the political aisle. 1)        Your Respect for our common values: If you are truly a friend, you will recognize that we all have ideals and values that we are working to protect when we decide to vote and to support candidates. These are part of who we are and why we feel passionate about certain subjects. 2)       Your values and core beliefs: In this same vein, not only the common values we share, like love of country and belief that the country we support is great and continues to be great, we have core beliefs in basic things like love of family and hope that we will leave our world a better place for our children. 3)       The Fact that you listen is something that I will have to work on as part of

Nancy Pelosi has finally said something about what Dems will do when and if they take control of the House. The laundry list should begin to get awfully long by now. The Ethics concerns should have begun to pile up from Day One of the Trump Presidency. At present, there is no mechanism of checks and balances on the insider trading, the cronyism, the government waste, fraud and abuse, the corruption and flagrant spending of taxpayer money for personal expenses within this corrupt administration. Steve Schmidt, former Republican strategist, is correct in saying the Democrats should have been better at hammering home this message. And frankly, the Dems have never been good at messaging and they aren’t getting any better now. But the Trump Administration is so bad, so corrupt and over-reaching, that they may win in spite of themselves. The list should include: ·          Hearings on ALL Trump Administration officials to restore oversight and win back the trust of t

Globalization is not a concept but reality I keep thinking of the rock song: “Hang on....Help is on the way!”....We need the cavalry out. And the elephant in the room is Globalization. It’s the dirty word for the 38% crowd. The odd thing is that these protectionist policies are going to hit them as much or more as it will everyone else. These are not the elitists. The Elite of the GOP want free and fair trade. The only small group that is cheering are the steel workers and their union leaders. Everyone else is screwed in this. And the idea that we are going to go back to the 19 th Century coal mine and aluminum and steel based economic models is laughable. There are books written, classes held and studies showing that automation is going to eliminate a segment of the work force. Preparing for the New Economy is going to take a Manhattan Project effort. We need a leader that we can get behind that will shove home this message every day of his or her campaign.

This summit -or photo op for Fat Boys- is a waste if we are going to simply expect Trump to go in and sit down and ‘charm’ the delegation or to use the old Harold Hill “Think Method” to try and stun them with our brilliance. Trump is a buffoon and a madman with a big stick, thanks to the 38%. The question now is how far will he go and how far will we let him go? The one thing the GOP is good at is fake outrage. And they would have had plenty of ingredients to stir them up as we keep speculating ‘what if” this was OBAMA doing these things. What if....Obama had trashed our allies!? What if....Obama had dismissed the press as fake news and an ongoing FBI investigation plus Special counsel looking into his campaign and possible obstruction of justice as a ‘witch hunt?’ What if...Obama had – and the list goes on. The answer is he wouldn’t be able to get away with it, and the next question is where is the outrage? Where are the people storming the Bastille? Why don’t the Demo