I'm a Middle Class Kid

I grew up in a middle class household in a middle class neighborhood in a middle class state in the golden age of the middle class in American history. I grew up in Detroit, the Motor City, Motown, in the fifties and sixties. I graduated from a public high school at seventeen, going on to a publicly sponsored university, Michigan State University in the fall.

After a rocky start, with the depression and all, my parents had a good life. They didn't like to be in debt, and when they wanted a new car, and I was ready for school, my mother went back to work. Evidently, they liked the money and she ended up working for nearly the next twenty years. It enabled them to have a house, a good car, ability to pay their billls, vacations every couple of years, ability to put their kids through college, and a good retirement at the end. Shouldn't everyone have that?

Can You Say "Emoluments?"

Black’s Law Dictionary defines an “emolument” as an “advantage, profit, or gain received as a result of one’s employment or one’s holding of office.”

Merriam-Webster defines "emolument" as "the returns arising from office or employment usually in the form of compensation or perquisites." Perquisites is the key word for this discussion, "a privilege, gain, or profit incidental to regular salary or wages, especially one expected or promised."

Article 2, Section 1, Clause 7 of the Constitution states, "The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compensation, which shall neither be encreased nor diminished during the Period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them."

The day this president took office he was violating the emoluments clause of the Constitution. His DC Trump hotel was in violation the day he was sworn in. Foreign governments, and multinational corporations were renting blocks of rooms, for millions of dollars, to curry favor with the new president. Even though he said he was turning over his company to his sons, you know as well as I, millions of dollars are flowing into his pocket.

In two and a half years he has charged the US Treasury over $120 Million for his golf excursions at his own properties (for over one third of his time in office). How many miilions have reached his own pocket? He had his VP, Mike Pence, stay at his golf resort on the opposite side of the island on his recent poltical visit to Ireland. It wasn't just Mike, it's his secret service detail, his staff, and there's military people involved. It's usually renting out an entire wing, or more. Trump's charging them for all of it at the premium price. I mean, not even a discount? Pence had to fly to Dublin on Air Force 2 to attend meetings with the Irish, instead of just driving across town. What did that cost?

The latest outrage is him having Air Force planes refuel at Turnberry, Scotland, a private ariport near his golf resort, and having the crew stay at his resort. It costs millions more for the planes to refuel at the airport than at a military base, as was usual protocol, and it's even been said the crews can't afford the restaurant because their per diems won't cover the cost. They say they're giving the military a "cut rate." what is it? $150 a night?

Now he wants to have the next G-7 meeting, that will be held in the US, at his Doral resort near Miami. Money, money, money.

I know a lot of people love the guy, but they're in love with a tv celebrity image, and not the real deal. This man is the most corrupt person to ever inhabit the presidency. I won't even get into his cabinet, but you know, birds of a feather. As the saying goes, grifters gonna grift.

I have to ask my conservative/Republican neighbors: You've been telling me for years and years how you consider yourselves "constitutional conservatives," true believers in the Constitution. Where are you on this? You're totally silent on this matter. As the saying goes, silence implies consent. Is it just IOKYAR? It's OK If You're A Republican?

I'm Not Buying it's Iran

Today, two tankers were attacked in the Gulf of Oman, between Oman and Iran. They were set on fire and their crews were evacuated by the Iranians.

Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is out there pointing the finger of blame at Iran, with NSA head, JOhn Bolton, right behind him. They have offered not one iota of evidence for their claims.

Red lights are going off throughout my brain. I've seen this before, a number of times in my life. I'm old enough to remember the Gulf of Tonkin Incident, that LBJ used to commit over a couple million young men and women to Vietnam. More recently is was Saddam Hussein's WMD (which there wasn't any). I want to see the evidence. It sounds like a false flag operation to me.

Don't buy it.

I Hear the Drums of War

I remember 9-11 very well. I remember the desire for war ramped up like I'd never heard or seen in my life, and I was fifty by then. The Congress passed the Authorization for the Use of Military Force without much opposition, and made war on Afghanistan for next to no reason. Afghanistan had agreed to turn Osama bin Laden over to a third country, but the US refused, choosing to make war on the Taliban. We're still there almost eighteen years later. There's a reason Afghanistan was called the graveyard of empires. It's cost us thousands of lives and trillions of dollars.

I remember 2002, when W Bush went after Saddam Hussein. I was known by that time that W had told his biographer back in 1999, that he wanted to be a wartime president. That wartime presidents get reelected. Throughout 2002, the administration tried to keep us in fear with the threat of "mushroom clouds," and in March 2003, invaded and conquered Iraq. Then, whoops! they hadn't thought of what they were going to do once they got to Baghdad. and spent years fighting an insurrectio to our invasion that cost us many more lives than the invasion itself. That was Donald Rumsfeld 's brain child with W's blessing. That meant thousands more lives and trillions more dollars.

Now, in the distance, I can hear the drums of war once again. John Bolton cut his teeth on the Iraq War, now he's in the middle of going to war with Iran.

To Promote the General Welfare - The United States Constitution

Gary Wisenbaker was in rare form in his latest VDT Op-ed (02/02/19). After extolling the president, hitting every one of Rush Limbaugh's talking points, he characterized the Democratic Party as Democratic Socialists. I find it interesting that Mr. Wisenbaker wants to frame basic liberal Democratic policies as "socialist." When I was young, Political Science 101 taught me socialism was "government ownership of the means of production." There is no Democrat I know of that advocates for such a position. As a staunch Democrat, I have no interest in that, so I don't know what he's talking about about. I think he's just bs'ing.

It seems Mr. Wisenbaker, for some reason I cannot fathom, has a problem with taxation as a means of providing public services, and would like to call it "socialism" like it was a bad thing. Given Mr. Wisenbaker's definition of socialism, do you and Mr. Wisenbaker not appreciate travelling the socialist roads of Lowndes County? Are you not thankful for our socialist traffic lights and socialist engineering departments?  I would wager you like our socialist fire deparments, and socialist police and socialist sheriff's departments and our socialist jails and prisons. Local water departments ensure our water is safe. Whoa, that's a socialist entity. Republicans have called Social Security "socialist" since its inception. Do you want to do away with it? Medicare, that "socialist" medical program for senior citizens, is the most popular of all government programs, and even their saint Ronald voiced a commercial that said it was akin to slavery or oppression. As a recipient of Medicare, I am both thankful for it, and find it the best way of providing health care having come through all the other ways. Are you and he against TriCare, that covers most of the military personnel? The vast majority of people like their socialist school systems. In Mr. Wisenbaker's definintion, even our City Councils and County Commission would be socialist entities. Which brings us to largest socialist entity in America, one of the largest in the world, the U.S. Military. There are so many more examples of socialist policies embedded in the American way that is considered our way of life today.

So I ask you and Mr. Wisenbaker, if you hate socialism, do you want to do away with all these socialist programs? The Constitution of the United States states clearly that "to promote the general welfare" is a task of the U.S. government. "To Promote the general welfare," not just that of the top one percent, the oligarchs, the neo-aristocracy. That's where  I get my constitutional authority for this.

It was Republicans that destroyed the family farm.

They say this last week of the year is a good time to slow down, stop, and take stock of where we are today. One does it on several levels, the personal, the social, the political, the spiritual. 

"Dairy farming is dying. After 40 years, I’m done."

What an incredible article on so many levels! An eloquent description of our present economic system. Things ain't like they used to be, and the new system has been deliberate. Individuals and families in agriculture have been decimated. 

In my reading, the War on the Family Farm started with Earl Butz, Republican Secretary of Agriculture 1971-1976, appointed by NIxon, who famously declared, "Get big or get out!" He served on the boards of several agribusiness companies, and he pushed their interests.

It was under Republican Reagan in the 80's, the plight of the American farmer was dramatized in movies like "The River" and "Country." In 1985, Willie Nelson began the Farm Aid series of concerts, which continue to this day, to publicize the farmer's situation, because the news organizations would not.

Now this man informs us today's farm situation is even worse than ever. This situation was brought about by Big Business with a lot of help from Republican administrations, beginning with Butz working to overthrow New Deal Democratic policies that favored the family farmer. through to the Big Ag favoring policies of the Republican administration today.

The Republican governmental policies that have been instrumental in decimating the family farm must be stopped and reversed. The only party able to do that is the Democratic Party. FDR had huge support from farmers because he advocated policies that acknowledged their dignity and favored them over Big Business. If Democrats could get back to that vision they would make great inroads into those red areas we see on the political maps and turn them blue and do some good for those farmers.

Rural Voters Will Benefit From Democratic Values

The VDT had a front page article over the weekend titled, "The Great Divide: Election exposes rural, urban chasm". The question is, is Valdosta urban or rural? In the article, a Republican leader in Colquit County thinks his area has flourished under Republican rule. Here in Valdosta, Lowndes County, it was recently reported we are the ninth poorest city in the USA. That is not flourishing in my book. In fact, I find it the exact opposite. It's not like it just happened. Six years ago it was reported, "Valdosta 3rd Poorest City in US." I've lived here for nearly twenty years. There hasn't been much growth, let alone prosperity. It's about the same.

I don't want commissioners that are content with treading water. I think we should prosper. If we're not, we must be doing something wrong. If we not not prospering, why are we paying the Planning Commission a million dollars a year? Then somehow we can't afford a half million a year for Public Transportation that would help local businesses and employees thus being a stimulus to the local economy? Asking for a friend.

This year is a municipal election year. The mayor sets the agenda. We can either have a conservative mayor that has no vision for the future, but merely continues what has been going on, or someone willing to try some new things. Seeing as we a stuck in the mire, I think we should try some new things. We should not be content with being among the poorest cities in the US, but work on trying things that might help. The way we have been doing things has not worked. We need to change the leadership to do anything different that might help.

It's the local level government that affects you most directly, far more the the federal level. So it's important to pay attention to local issues. They're out there, but you have to look for them. A website called "On The LAKE Front" focuses on Lowndes County and is well worth checking out.

This blog and it's partner podcast is another resource for local issues.