Thursday, March 14, 2019:   Finally Some Republicans Grow A Spine
At long last, a number of Republican Senators have stepped up to help save our democracy from the lunatic in the oval office by voting for a resolution overturning Trump's declaration of a national emergency at the southwestern border. My hope is that this is just the beginning and that the system created by the founding fathers is finally starting to work.

The next effort of congress has to be repairing the damage done by Trump's appointees and rejecting, in its entirety, his proposed budget. The Republicans in congress have to stop their borrow and spend budget policy that is mortgaging our future. Despite their reluctance to do so, they must tax those who are the real beneficiaries of our so-called booming economy and not the average American on the street who is living pay check to pay check. We must plug the holes in the tax code that only benefit the rich and raise the marginal tax rates on the highest earners to those levels that were in place during the 1950s and 60s when the average worker could actually achieve a middle class standard of living.

For those that are against an estate tax, think about this. Most of the accumulated wealth subject to the estate tax was not earned by the heirs of those estates and was accumulated on the backs of the American worker who has never been given his or her fair share of the productivity gains since the early 1970s. The fallacy that the estate tax is hurting the lowly American farmer is such a joke. In 2019, the Federal Estate tax exemption is $11,400,000 - that's right $11.4 million. That means an individual can leave $11.4 million to their heirs and pay no federal estate or gift tax and a married couple is able to shield $22.8 million. So the current estate tax applies to less than 1% of the population. Meanwhile in 2017 almost 12% of American households didn't have enough food to eat.

Since 1973, productivity has gone up 77% while average hourly pay has only increased 12.4% and this has gotten worse in recent years. Corporate tax loop holes have to be closed and they must be made to share their gains with their workers or be penalized in the form of taxes. Somehow congress must neutralize the concept that shareholder value is the only thing that matters in America.

The fact is the wealthy aren't going to fix this inequity. The only counter balance available to the average American is their elected representative. So it is time for our representatives to say "enough", and enact laws and policies that reverse this obscene distribution of income and wealth. They need to do this for the good of the republic and for the survival of our democracy. Inaction will only result in two outcomes: a total fascist state or second American civil war.


Saturday, March 2, 2019:   You Should Be Afraid, Really Afraid
In his closing remarks to the House Oversight Committee this past week, Michael Cohen warned that if Trump loses the election in 2020 there will never be a peaceful transition of power.

Autocrat wanabes like Trump find democracies intolerably frustrating. They generally lack the skills and temperament to deal with the give-and-take of everyday politics and roil at criticism and compromise. They quickly figure out that crises offer them an avenue to escape constitutional shackles. By declaring a national emergency based on a security crisis, they can achieve three key objectives. First, a national emergency provides a vehicle around which to rally public support. People are more likely to tolerate authoritarian power grabs if they are afraid. Second, by declaring a crisis, all other criticism is silenced. You are either with me or against me and if you are against me, you are clearly not a patriot. Finally, a security crisis gives the autocrat an opportunity to undermine democracy and circumvent constitutional checks and balances.

Trump has shown his willingness to create a crisis in order to justify his abuse of power. With the new counter balance to his abuses in the House of Representatives, he is likely to invent or provoke a more serious crisis in order to solidify his ever diminishing power and he has plenty of opportunities to choose from. The one at the top my list is North Korea. Despite all the hype, Trump walked out of the negotiations making little effort to actually reach some compromise. Could it be he is trying to provoke Kim Jong Un into doing something that would allow him to go to war with North Korea? That would be one hell of a crisis that could potentially engulf the world.