Anarchy: a state of disorder due to absence or non-recognition of authority or absence of government
and absolute freedom of the individual, regarded as a political idea.

The Preamble to the Constitution states: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more
perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote
the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and
establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

When the “Tea Party” movement started in 2008-09 it claimed to want a revolution and freedom from taxes. They emerged right as big donor money from the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, et al was a driving factor in campaigns. This was also at the cusp of the profound social changes wrought by Facebook and Twitter. This happens as satellite television gave people so many choices on what they wanted to hear, leading to nothing but talking heads of extreme ideas. It also happened at the same time as reality television was in full swing, where people screaming at each other became entertainment. Is it any wonder that a mere 10 years later our culture and environment is figuratively and literally in a state of shutdown?

Facebook wants its users to determine what are reliable news sources because they feel uncomfortable with deciding. College campuses have to issue warnings to freshman about college not being an “intellectual” safe space. But let’s be honest; it is not any one group or demographic  that cannot handle ideas, discussion, and compromise. The societal dysfunction that began around 2008 is now in full swing and includes the echelons of power in the United States.

Some of the Republican politicians  in Washington D.C., from the President to members of Congress, are anarchists. They do not care about a functioning government, nor do they care about setting a standard for political discourse. Whether they truly believe our government should function on a Darwinist framework or they just want a spot on news show, their goals and aims are selfish and do not represent the will of the people. See any poll that shows a significant majority of Americans want a fix for DACA and want to fund CHiP. But because there are members of Congress who take a hardline on DACA (because of racism? Because they want to be on Fox News?) and just want to oppose ideas they don’t agree with we now have a government shutdown. And to top it off, they want to scream and point fingers. That is anarchy ladies and gentlemen.

To be fair, the Democrats have their share of mistakes and often in the direction of sanctimony and government only for the sake of government. Too often Democrats claim programs cannot be changed, tweaked, and even discarded because they did not want to explain themselves for fear of not getting re-elected. And, beginning in the Bush 43 Presidency, the Democrats instituted some procedural changes (the so called “nuclear” option) because they wanted to govern by we-told-you-so rather than by actually governing. (That was not the case with the ACA, however; but that is another story.) I would not call it anarchy, but I would call it poor governing.

So here we are in 2018 with a government shutdown. First, Republicans control the Congress and the Presidency - at least in as much as they can control Trump. They have had a year and wasted six months trying to un-do the ACA despite indications that many Americans wanted the program to continue. After 8 years of ACA, and a good 10-12 years of “we need to fix healthcare”, the best they could offer was repeal. An absence of governing. Then they spent another six months working on tax reform and dramatically changing a tax structure while significantly increasing the deficit, the one thing they claimed for nearly 30 years they did not want to do! Basically they are cutting off the funding mechanism for every aspect of governing, and yet the Republican congress will continue to write checks based on the credit score of the American citizens! They refused to look at DACA and refused to fund CHiP, despite what the American people wanted. Nothing they have done in the last year is what the majority of Americans want. They rely on screaming, snide comments, and tweets just like this was a reality show!

But it isn’t a reality show. This is our country. This is the life of every single American. I am not naive enough to think that Democrats are perfect or that if they held the levers of power they would not return to sanctimony and untouchable government programs. So while I do identify as a Democrat this is not a pro-Democrat opinion. Rather, I am calling on all Americans to insist our member of Congress and our President turn away from anarchy and return to governing. I call on all Americans to hold our elected officials to account regardless of affiliation when they do what is wrong and detrimental to our domestic functions and our foreign policy. How? Call your Representatives and Senators. Email. Write. Then, get out and vote. The primaries are in March. Primaries choose the candidates for the general election. If you do not like the direction of Republican party towards anarchy, then PLEASE vote for responsible Republicans in March. If you want conscientious Democrats, then vote in March. Then vote your conscience in November. Insist on full disclosure from President Trump - his taxes and his campaign. Turn off the screaming heads on TV, and think critically about where you get your information. Talk to people who do not think like you do, but be respectful and considerate. And when you put your foot in your mouth  then apologize. Next, let us all insist on campaign finance reform. We the People can insist on an immediate return to an open government by demanding a CLEAN (single issue) DACA bill and a CLEAN CHiP bill, followed by a continuing resolution with a deadline to fix the rest of the budget. We the People need to demand that. And right now it is the Republicans who hold all levers of power. They are the ones who need to come to the table and abandon the cancer of anarchy that has overtaken their party.

Vote your conscience. But please vote.

“I am not a member of an organized party; I’m a Democrat.” - Will Rogers I too am a Democrat. 

In Texas. More the FDR/New Deal kind, less the Bernie Sanders kind. The herd has been thin for a number of years, although reports say it is on the rebound. Regardless of the prognosis of the Democratic party, or political beliefs in general, the 2018 primary election season is almost upon us. To that end, let me explain myself.

About 20 years ago I decided that in Texas I had to vote in the Republican primary if I wanted to have a say in my federal, state, and local government. The purpose of the primary election was to make sure that We the People had a say in our candidates, not some political party big-wig. So I vote in the Republican primary because I accept that in Texas, a Republican is likely - very likely - to win the general election. Since I vote Democrat in the general election, the primary is where I have my say for my political leaders. To that end, I voted against Rick Perry every chance I got, even when he was just running as the head of the Texas Department of Agriculture, before his ascendancy as erstwhile presidential candidate and to head the U.S. Department of Energy.

If I were writing a joke, I’d say I voted against him on Dancing with the Stars except I don’t watch DWTS. I am generally not a fan of contest shows, especially those that make light of the privilege of voting. DWTS (and the other shows) make it worse by the incessant advertising and media attention as well as having 3 seasons in one 12 month period. The familiarity breeds apathy. And apathy itself is a type of vote. Not for or against a dance team or singer or even candidate, but against the institution itself. In the case of Rick Perry on DWTS, apathy against the TV show meant I broke my pattern of voting against ol’ Rick every chance I got. He didn’t win thankfully, but he got farther along than anyone could have imagined.

If we accept that apathy is a vote against an institution, then what does it mean to not vote in the primaries? Plato said that “The price of apathy is to be ruled by evil men.” It is hard to remember that when the media inundates with politics at a frenetic pace. Social media, fake news, and Twitter are just a part of the informal media where stories get shared virally. (And what a great description that is.) But it is also the stunt by ESPN giving Kaitin Jenner the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. I mean, frankly, be poor, trans, and in a conservative state instead of famous and rich if you want courage. It was a publicity stunt to generate headlines for a sports network that is becoming irrelevant. Or at the other end of the spectrum, let’s look at Fox News. Fox portrays fellow Americans as The Enemy of the state. Forget that whole Bill of Rights thing as they suffocate you with an American flag. Or terrify you with alarming chyrons. There is also Rachel Maddow’s play about Trump’s tax return that was a big nothing-burger. So like DWTS, the media has bred contempt with familiarity making it easy to be apathetic about politics in general.

However, here is the rub: apathy is a vote against an institution so if we are apathetic when it comes to our government then we don’t want a say in our government. And, about 100 years ago our government began to have primary elections where we the people got to choose the candidates for a general election. Then we get to vote in the general election. The idea here is to have, as Lincoln stated, “A government of the people, by the people, and for the people [that] will never perish from the earth.” James Madison’s Federalist 10 expressed a healthy concern for pure democracy and how factions (political parties) can manipulate voters’ passions, hence the idea of a two-tier representative democracy. We vote in primaries, then again in the general election for representatives who are supposed to represent the interests of their constituents. The idea is to do the most good for the most people. However, this only works if we the people actually care about voting at every step of the process. If we let the apathy get the better of us then we get left with two bad choices and disdain for the proud Republic of the United States.

George Washington stated in his Farewell Address: “However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.” This is the true danger of apathy. We must be on guard against it. Our ancestors fought to preserve the very system that allows us to vote. We as individuals, our children, our parents, our grandparents have served to defend these very freedoms. We OWE it to them to get out and vote every chance we get, every election. Every. Single. Election. Primary. Local. State. Federal. Whether we like the candidates or not. Whether we feel represented. Whether we totally agree. And we are “We the People of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity….” It is our privilege. It is our right. It is our responsibility.

The 2018 Texas primary season is upon us. March 6, 2018 is Primary Election Day. The last day to register to vote is February 5, 2018. You can apply for a mail-in ballot until February 23, 2018. Early voting will run February 20-March 2, 2018.

Vote your conscience. But please vote.

My Truth in Gone with the Wind

My fascination with Gone With the Wind began when it first aired on TV in 1976, 1977. The drama, the romance, the clothes! I used to put on my mom's 1950s dresses with a hoop and pretend to be Scarlett O'Hara. Goofy, huh? From there I began to collect posters, plates, books about the movie, the VHS when it became available; I red the book 3 times. I recently put up my collection in my classroom where I teach U.S. History. Why you might ask? Some would suggest that perpetuates the vision of slavery as no big deal. That is far from the truth. I put that stuff up for two reasons: to prompt the question of "why do have that stuff" and to hold myself accountable for the dark truth of my cultural privileges. My journey with GWTW began with a childish, girlish fascination - drama, romance, clothes. (As an ironic twist, my family is from Ohio and fought for the Union in the Civil War.) I had no concept of the complexities and truths of the issues. In fact I swallowed the Lost Cause Myth whole. The south was the land of cavaliers and ladies, manners and honor. Slaves were well cared for, so I thought, and were nothing other than a type of working class. Everyone was content until the Yankees swept in to disrupt the system. I had no experience with People of Color in my upper middle class and very white upbringing. Typical U.S. History did not challenge that assumption either. Later, as I became an older teenager and embraced my identity as a smart, independent female in a male dominated world I saw Scarlett differently. My feminist sensibilities awoke, and I saw her as a women who broke the rules forced on her by a patriarchal system. She lied, stole, cheated, and killed to make her world her own and stopped relying on men. In fact, it was Ashley Wilkes who made her weak because he was weak! The only strong men were her father and Rhett, who believed in the women in their lives and supported them. She was a bad-ass anti-heroine who made her own world. I still love Scarlett for that, and this is one reason why I have my collection up in my classroom. To inspire young women to make their world, care for their family, and not apologize for being themselves. As I matured into adulthood and then studied history, the truth of the evil system GWTW represented haunted me. African Americans were sold, abused, exploited to bolster a system for which the O'Haras and Wilkes et al were a minority. Most whites couldn't own slaves, or only one or two who were immensely valuable to their family. Three to five percent of those owned more 10 slaves, and even less owned 20 or more. Those people made money by driving those slaves mercilessly and by leasing or selling them without regard to family structures. The system predicated white success on ownership of other human beings, and indeed praised it as a core vale in the pursuit of happiness. This is how the Confederate states were able to get whites who had no slaves to fight for the continued ownership of slaves. It was a perverse and evil system along the lines of tyranny. It took away humanity from the slaves for the purpose of profit through violence and intimidation, compelled whites to support it at risk of violence and ostracism, treated women -black and white - as non entities and all for the benefit of a few and the insidious lie of false aspirations. Disgusting. You can see my horror at my childish fascination. So, I packed away the collection for well over a decade. My disgust continued as I understood the criminal way Jim Crow destroyed the promises and progress the Civil War bought with blood. As whites fatigued with the intransigence of a racism most struggled to define (whites mostly), it was deemed "enough" to have ended slavery. The radicals in Congress had even enforced the right to vote for black men, an act that many educated women resented. (of course, the white patriarchy assumed they could return to a variation of the violence and intimidation of the past to return their power. As a result, women getting the vote was a non-starter.) Jim Crow segregation and its subtler version of exploitation allowed racism to persist and white America to sleep at night. The Lost Cause Myth gave meaning to the blood cost of the Civil War and made radicals (those who wanted equality) seem reckless. This is underlying message of GWTW, although Margaret Mitchell was probably unaware of how that myth shaped her story. Age and experience, or maybe just age, softened my perspective on my GWTW collection. The ability to explain what made GWTW symbolic of this complex history grew and so I pulled out and put it up in my classroom - kind of. I really sort of hid it behind other knick knacks and only the most observant teenager (oxymoron?) noticed it. However, 2015 and 2016 happened. Freddie Gray, Philando Castille happened. Trump happened. The 13 white, male Senators writing healthcare happened. Jess Sessions happened. Black Lives Matter and the Women's March happened. There are insidious systems at work that are designed to take away equality. These forces pick and choose which parts of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution they follow. They ignore the pledge to each other, the common welfare that is a part of those documents in favor of strict legalistic interpretations and the word "liberty." The very systems that created slavery, Jim Crow, oppression of women and all people of color have reared their ugly head to undo the last 60 years. My conviction is that I can no longer hid what I know. I cannot be ashamed of my own journey in understanding race and oppression. So, this year my collection is at the forefront along with other concepts about dissent, equality, oppression, and freedom. I hope students ask me about GWTW. I want to explain to them that while I did not participate in slavery specifically, I benefit every day from the system that created it. I am responsible for that privilege and the least I can do acknowledge it. This is not about a trite "check your privilege." Every day in my classroom I will be reminded to embrace how power creates haves and have nots and provide them homage. Every day I can choose my words carefully and accept their are phrases and words I don't "own" because of my privilege. (Conversely, there are a few words and phrases I do own because I am a woman.) Every day I can share my own journey with the world around me and maybe help someone take their own step toward empathy and love and responsibility.

A New Civil War

The American Civil War of 1861-1865 cost the U.S. over 600,000 lives, roughly 2% of the population. The American South was economically devastated, and America's absence from global economics led to expanded colonization in Africa and Asia. Arguably that is a broad summary statement that ignores a multitude of nuances but this is not about a history lesson on the Civil War. I am concerned for my country because I see the same polarization and identity fixation that led to the American Civil War. In the last week I have read/hear a couple of items that disturb me. Sean Hannity's show is increasingly claiming the "liberal left" is planning a coup. Senator Ted Cruz's latest fundraising letter claimed a liberal takeover. Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick claimed that the "left" wants a state income tax. To be sure, there is vitriol on the left. There are lots of 25th Amendment talks that are counterproductive and the Trump hate - which I totally get - ignores the issues in Congress and at the state level. Anti-fascists are destructive anarchists. Although I would suggest that the Tea Party cohorts of Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are anarchists too, the are just the computer virus within the system instead of the baseball bat destroying the unit. Ultimately, this polarization makes Americans hate one another and that never ends well - see the American Civil War. Those of us who are just the average American need to reject that kind of talk.Turn off Hannity. Reject Cruz and Patrick. Ignore Louise Mench. Hold liberals accountable, such as when Johnny Depp joked about assassination or when Hillary disparages a huge swath of America as "deplorable". That is not excusable. We in the middle - socially, politically, economically - must create a dynamic environment and HOLD OUR POLITICIANS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WELFARE OF AMERICA. Wanting accountability does not make me or you a part of a coup d'etat! That is our system of government. And our government is doing things and planning policy that is not sound and is backward thinking, regardless of where you are on the political spectrum. We can massage how much government and how to use taxes and how to apply taxation and regulation but those are the characteristics of government. Our government has social responsibilities to the unborn, the elderly, children, women, those who lose their jobs, veteransm and much more. A democracy is about different viewpoints and challenging viewpoints. Anyone who suggest that First Amendment protesting or free press is a coup d'etat needs to go back to school. Likewise, anyone who supports extreme nationalization needs to go back to school. We are facing a challenging century, just as the late 19th century was challenging. We can take the easy road and hate one another or pull together and face this head on. It will be confusing, complicated, and messy. But triggering hate for one another is wrong. "We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

Institutions: What are they good for?

I've been thinking a lot about institutions. The institution of marriage. Religious institutions. Educational institutions. Social institutions. Government institutions. Most people praise and honor institutions in the abstract but not when they interfere with personal desire. Take for instance marriage; most people feel marriage is a sacred institution. How many people voted for Trump because of the SCOTUS position and the dissonance of the Obergefell ruling (gay marriage)? Yet, half of marriages (hetero ones) end in divorce. The abstract of marriage is sacred; but half of us recognize it isn't as simple or desirable as that. Take religion; most people label themselves as "spiritual" and want the right to go to church, whether or not they actually go. Religious values matter, right? Be nice. Love one another. Give to charity. Except for when we are anonymous, when we can be rude or snide. And don't forget when religion becomes a club, a cultural hallmark that has nothing to do with spirituality or Jesus, God, Allah, Buddha, or whatever. In this case, we honor the "church" as a religious institution but we have trouble identifying which churches fit that and what the appropriate institutional members look like. Each person thinks it looks like theirs and not someone else's, as though it is a label one can purchase or a badge you can earn. Educational and social institutions, like schools and clubs and communities, are important. Except the voucher movement and online education are fracturing what the educational institution looks like. The same can be said for Facebook and Twitter fracturing the social institutions. If I can take my property taxes to any school or if higher education is out of reach for many then is education even an institution? Politicians control much of what we teach anyway, so it might legitimately just be an extension of the state. Social institutions of all types are collapsing - malls, social clubs, political organizations. Kid participate in competitive sports over community sports and mom and dad shop online rather than shopping together. We can't even go to the pharmacy without alcohol being sold, so almost every social occasion is lubricated and intoxicated. (Some religious groups excepted of course, but see the previous paragraph....) Government institutions include local, state, federal levels as well as the three federal branches (executive, legislative, and judicial). Also included is the right to vote and the right of free speech/free press and the right to jurisprudence. Read any news story or talk politics for 5 minutes and the damage to our perceptions of a government for the people, by the people, and of the people is shocking. Citizens were so disgusted in November of 2016 they just skipped voting. Skipped it. Or skipped the primaries that chose the final two candidates. Or maybe life just got in the way - I won't say every person skipped voting out of protest. That is self reflection and not for me to point fingers. We do know that voter ID laws and gerrymandering have skewed the right to vote and now POTUS wants an election commission. POTUS wants to limit the press and most people ridicule the media, rightly and wrongly, but never promote accountability or praise. The poor and people of color know that the law works against them. Red states are attacking blue cities and the federal government can't even agree if we need access to health care. (Cue Marie Antoinette "Let them eat cake" or as John Cornyn said, "Let them choose not to have healthcare".) Citizens do not trust nor do the believe in their government to act FOR them. So if all of these institutions are failing then what are they good for? Do we want them as a society or no? I think this is a legitimate question to ask ourselves. As much as I would like to slap a big TRUMP on this decay, it started a long time ago. Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers? McCarthyism? 1929? I am not sure when we forgot to pledge our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor to each other in favor of the pursuit of happiness but somehow we got things mixed up and our institutions suffered for it. We better decide pretty quickly what they are good for and stand up for them without fear and without recrimination based on a foundation that strengthens institutions not weakens them.

What really matters anymore?

It all started with Bill Clinton's "what is the definition of is" and "I did not have sexual relations with that woman". There is no right and wrong, only the legality of black and white. (Unless you are black, in which case....well, that's another blog.) The irony is that the party of values that trashed the Democrats for two decades over the fuzzy meaning of words now find themselves in the same situation. Is it collusion to want to win? What politician doesn't play dirty to get elected? Did he really break the law? These are the same mental gymnastics Democrats went through with Bill Clinton, and this points to the problems with Hillary. But enough about the 2016 election - they both sucked and both are corrupt. But let's just admit that. The Trumps are as crooked as Hillary just differently. Stop apologizing, stop defending, stop justifying. Tell Kellyanne just to admit "Yeah, they are douches. But they won." Let's just call a spade a spade (back to the black and white concept). So the Trumps are corrupt, just as the Clintons are. As a teacher, how do I encourage kids to "do right"? Don't bully. Don't lie. Don't steal ideas and call them your own. Don't touch people who don't want to be touched. Don't make fun of those less fortunate. Don't use your position (with wealth, with social status, with opportunity) to hurt or limit others. Yeah, all of that is bullsh** now. (Pardon the language - but even that doesn't matter anymore.) Get what you can. Steal what you can. Lie what you can. Hurt who you can. That is politics now, and it is society too. This is what makes me sad. Nothing really matters anymore. Not right, only might. May I suggest that we all watch Richard Harris in the musical "Camelot"? We have become a modernized middle ages where the nobility run over the peasants and the peasants bow and scrape. What really matters anymore? Obviously, most of us hold our family dear and that takes most of our attention. We have jobs. We have bills. We have kids, grandkids, or furry animals that depend of us. The temptation to retreat into that is strong especially in the national environment of anything goes. Except it doesn't. Right is right, not might, not wealth. Yes, Democrats AND Republicans are responsible. Ethics has been obscured by legalities. Jesus came to cast aside the law. We can safely hold to "what is right" not what is legal. I don't care if you believe in small government or big. If you believe in regulation or free market. The anathema that faces us right now matters, matters as much as the existence of our country. You and I may differ on policy specifics, but we can both agree what happens now matters. It matters a lot. Take a stand. Draw a line. Raise your voice. Put your Senators and Representatives on your cell phone, local and national offices. (Ted Cruz's office is a joke FYI.) Stand up for what is right.

Healthcare or Wealthcare? Oh, and Cruz's plan.....

It has been a few months since I blogged - you know, life. But the healthcare debate raging in the country and Congress is an issue close to my heart. Since I was old enough to understand insurance and politics I have believed in "socialized" medicine and single payer. I even wrote my high school research paper on it - in 1989. Since that time, my family benefited from the Medicaid expansion know as CHIP - Children's Health Insurance Program - from 2000 to 2004. It made all the difference for my family by providing my kids with the well check ups and medical and dental care my ex-husband's insurance didn't provide.(It was catastrophic only coverage.) Now you know my bias. My biggest issue with the Senate Plan (Better Care Reconciliation Act, BCRA) and the House Plan (Affordable Health Care Act, AHCA) is that they rewind us back to health insurance of the 20th century. Let's think about how much has changed since 1975, 1985: cell phones, cars, globalization, job markets, education costs, housing costs, you get the picture. So why are we going backwards on healthcare? I get it - the ACA has problems. (I would argue that is due to Republicans refusing to care about their constituents and Republican led states refusing the Medicaid expansion.) However, it at least acknowledged realities of the 21st century. Insurance Portability: How many times will people change jobs? A Google Search of "on average how many times does a person change jobs in their lifetime" will show you numbers from 4 in your first 12 years of career employment to 10-12 in a lifetime, from multiple types of sources. Basically, the 21st job market means change. In addition, the demand economy (Airbnb, Lyft, Uber) means that many people hold a series of part time gigs to cobble together full time income. The problem with the BCRA and AHCA is that they assume you have insurance through your job and yet those plans don't acknowledge the new economy at all. A Medicaid/Medicare for all plan would allow healthy people to buy into the nationalized health plan and have consistent coverage. This means healthy workers. It also means that small start-ups, you know the entrepreneurs that American individualism idolizes,would be able to start businesses without the burden of healthcare. A healthy labor force is a productive labor force. In addition, this supports innovation and small businesses. Does it mean higher taxes? For the wealthiest and corporations, yes. But there are ways to massage that. Large companies with generous health plans can get a bit of a tax break. More generous 504 plans. And maybe, just maybe, a value added tax. Cost of living: The cost of renting or buying a place to live has skyrocketed. And that doesn't include car prices, cell phones (a necessity regardless of what Jason Chaffetz says), or student loan debt. The tendency of kids to move back in with their parents is why the ACA extended coverage to children to the age of 26. In addition, automation and the internet are putting some job fields at risk. See JC Penney, or coal mining. If there is a penalty for going without health insurance then one has to use COBRA except that is very expensive. Or if you are paying 1/3 of you income in student loan payments, you can't really afford health insurance. It makes sense to keep these workers healthy and keep money in their pockets. Negotiating power: One of the biggest issues with the cost of healthcare is the fact that their are different costs for different states, even cities, even insurers. That is ridiculous. There is no transparency in the health industry. If there is a Medicaid for all plan, then the government will have the power to negotiate prices. Will that have a dampening on medical innovation? Not if we encourage researchers and university hospitals to be on the cutting edge. I am sure there is a way to massage this so as not to weaken the medical research field. As of now, the profit motive means there is more attention paid to impotency than to birth control. This might be a way to direct research away from profits. At the very least, make costs transparent. Plus, single payer options have fewer administrative costs so that will help in negotiations as well. And it might prevent the snafu we had with opiods, where companies targeted doctors directly. For more on single payer, read this New York Times article: On to Ted Cruz's plan. His plan would create a secondary ACA compliant pool for the sickest or riskiest people. Let's remember that the Republicans were worried about Death Panels. What better way to identify sick people than to put them all on the same health plan! And, it would make the market unstable because of the segmentation. It is bad policy and bad economics. It is tea with arsenic in it, make no mistake. It is political wrangling that is just as heartless as before. It would price the middle class out of the market so essentially you would have a worse system of healthcare for the very rich and the very poor but nothing for the middle. It is just lame. And stupid. For more, read this New York Times article on his plan: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/05/upshot/ted-cruz-has-an-idea-for-how-to-cover-high-risk-patients.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_up_20170707&nl=upshot&nl_art=4&nlid=71241221&ref=headline&te=1 The country has been talking about healthcare for 70 years. It is about time we just do something that takes care of all American.

The Fungus of a Failure to Think

I am putting this in a blog because it is all opinion. So leave now if you don't want to hear it. And based on my news posts on Facebook, you can probably guess the tone. But I will ask you to consider your principles. Read on at your own risk.

Principles. Those pesky things that guide us when all else fails. For some, they are intertwined with religious values. For others, less so to varying degrees. I ask you to consider your principles. What makes you believe in this country, the US of A, in democracy, in We the People. What makes you go vote, or not. What makes you get up on a Sunday to go to church. What makes you volunteer. What makes you do your job each day. Do you have those in mind?

How does the current government administration mesh with those values? Wait, don't confuse policy with principles. Policy is about how we practically enforce principles and it can look many different ways. I am not asking about affirmative action in college admissions, or "welfare" reform, or immigration policy. I am asking do your core principles mesh with the core principles of the actions - Executive Order, or House Bills, or Senate Investigations - of the current administration in power.

My answer is no. I live in hybrid world. My spouse, one of my children (maybe two), and my work environment scream "Trump! Make America Great Again!" But my gut, my historical knowledge, my concern for the future cry, "No!!!!" Not just no, but hell to the F*****G NO!  This A**HOLE doesn't know WTF he is talking about. (Pardon the crudity.)

Granted, I am a Universal Coverage fan. I admit this upfront. Not necessarily Single Payer, Medicare for all though. The ACA is flawed, and states like Texas that didn't expand Medicaid are part of the problem and the promises of a panacea were ridiculous. That bias claimed, AHCA or TrumpCare, is not even a health plan. It is a tax cut disguised as as a health plan.  It is mind boggling at best and malicious at worst. It will hurt the most vulnerable among us - the elderly, the disabled, the young. Maternity care will be pre-existing. But the rich will have more money.

Granted, I am not a Trump fan. I want America to succeed so in that sense I want him to succeed but otherwise, I would be okay if a random heart attack hit him after a steak dinner (with ketchup). But then Pence would be President, and have you seen Handmaid's Tale? Did 45 really fire Comey in the midst of an investigation that may involve his campaign? Really??!! I am no Comey fan, so I don't know that I mind but I do wish he had done it 3 months ago - back when Trump thought Comey was doing a good job.

Granted, I am a "progressive" whatever that means these days. The Trump tax "plan" and it's support of the wealthy and corporations makes my stomach churn. They are blowing up the lessons our society learned from the Gilded Age and the Great Depression and for what? So Trump Co. and Kushner can create a kleptocracy? It is disgusting on so many levels.

What is your answer? Are you pro-life? Then how do you support an administration that would cut the sick and elderly out of healthcare? Are you pro-America? Then how can you disregard our Founding Fathers, the Constitution?  Are you pro-"little guy"? Then how can you support the tax "plan" Trump proposed?

I honestly don't understand. I know good, hard working people whom I suspect supported Trump. How do they sleep at night knowing they unleashed this fungus into our system. It will be pervasive like a fungus, like any good pharma ad will show you. And some just don't seem to think - or want to think. They claim those of us who are upset are socialists or hysterical as they argue policy about which most don't understand. When do you sound the alarm? I worry that my progressive echo chamber drowns you out but I honestly don't see what there is to support or why you are screaming from the rooftops.

Now is the time act. Contact your representatives. I think they have all lost their minds in some sort of Tea Party Haze. Again, this isn't about policy. We can argue later about the merits of tax cuts, of the 10th Amendment later. Those are valid concerns. This is about the FUTURE OF OUR COUNTRY at stake.  Maybe that is hyperbolic. But that is from the heart.

And that, dear friends and those who have read this far, is why I wrote this.

Mea Culpa

A lot has happened lately in the realm of policy and politics. I have yielded to the easy temptation of "Share" when reading the news - mea culpa. I've been busy: STAAR prep, working on a second Masters, life. I am trying to respect those who don't like politics, which was the intent of my blog, but old habits die hard. I don't know that it is so much I use Facebook differently, but rather that I hold my personal life much more closely. So I am less likely to share personal items and more likely to share ideas. I am kind of nerdy after all.

Now that the disclaimer is issued, here are some questions after 3+ weeks of reading the news:
1. Where is our government policy going?
Clearly, anti-government people are running the show. I have theories about how this came to be but nothing terribly original and none of it answers the questions about what will replace it. This is the 21st century, and it is built upon internationalism and globalization. The genie doesn't go back in the bottle. If you gut the infrastructure (not just roads and bridges infrastructure), we risk not have resources and responses in place to face challenges and changes. People have a love/hate relationship with government - they love it when it works for them, and hate it when it doesn't. Nothing will change that. Just remember that the intent of the Constitution in 1787 was to create something that operated off of a big picture not a local one. Politics begins locally, but national politics needs vision and that has been consistently gutted since about 1981.
2. Where is our foreign policy going?
I don't know if Trump's foreign policy is the Art of the Deal writ large, or the spontaneous eruptions of a spoiled brat. In some ways, I admire it because for years the U.S. has played by rules other countries did not. How do you like us now? However, what is the end game? Is there one?
3. Where is Congress? 
They are MIA. I dislike President Trump and voted against him. (Not that I was a Hillary fan - more of a reluctant Bernie fan.) But Trump alone can be checked if there is will from Congress. Congress needs to respond to real problems with the stagnation of the middle class and with healthcare. If they don't, all the tax policy and government destruction in the world won't fix things. And they need to have a heart and soul, which clearly the Republican party prayed away in their pursuit of fundamentalist legislative purity. (True religion is widows and orphans, healing the sick, and caring for the poor - but too often those people have the wrong religion, ethnicity, or made bad choices so they don't count. The unborn matter, but once you are born you are on your own - it is called individualism.) Democrats are equally bereft of a compass, taking money from corporations and kissing the same rear end that poops on the middle class, the working class, the sick, and the environment. Dems especially deserve blame for ushering in the age obstruction with the nuclear option and executive orders rather than actually governing. After all Congress is only about the people in DC - sarcasm off. Now, the Repubs seem to hope they can tame the wind to their own purposes while the Dems are busy staring at their hands like they did nothing wrong.
4. Where is the oversight of the people?
Corruption in government has been bad for some time, but the Trump era is taking it to a new level. The movie Idiocracy or Wall-E will become prophecy if we don't wake up soon. Talk to people with different views. Think about your biases and opinions. You can hold a bias as long as you recognize when it causes you to dismiss an idea that might be productive or when it causes you to believe a lie. That knife cuts both ways, right and left. (See Berkely or Middlebury, or Ted Cruz, or every ridiculous meme that circulates.)

In the meantime, life goes on. As my father-in-law said, there will be a before Trump and an after Trump. I am indeed living history, yet history doesn't go on hold for STAAR, or course work, or a household. So forgive me if I "Share" too many political stories.

What the.....???

NYT Interview with Trump, partial transcript. Huh? The dude is nuts. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/05/us/politics/donald-trump-interview-new-york-times-transcript.html?emc=edit_nn_20170406&nl=morning-briefing&nlid=71241221&te=1&_r=0