November 18th, 2015
By Allen Schmertzler.
Words can not express this horror, and therefore there are times when just a raw emotional sketch is worth 1000 words. Have we crossed over into the abyss of World War Three?
Comments Off on Je Suis Francais
October 30th, 2015
By Allen Schmertzler.
FBI Director, James B. Comey has a theory that is correct, but only in part because his clarity is obscured by his self-serving perspective. He is the Director of an agency that has a culture of disdain for activists, a pitiful record of subversion, insidiousness, illegality, conspiracy, disregard for constitutional rights, and has no shame in its legacy of operating from its own hidden political agenda. Let us never forget nor forgive the concerted efforts of the FBI’s secret war against the Free Speech Movement, Doctor Martin Luther King, and too many other citizens who acted on the very legality of the freedoms our nation was founded on. Officials using crime statistics for advantage is nothing new, cooking the books on crime statistics is nothing new, and, never actually having true and honest crime statistics to report is nothing new. We are going to have to redefine what “crime” is first, and secondly, require honest bookkeeping, but more on that later.
So yes, Director Comey, I agree, there is a “chill wind” blowing across the land but for whom is the frost effecting? Another national dirty secret is out. We have seen enough visual evidence to pull the curtain back and expose an epidemic problem in the homeland. America has a crime problem and a justice system that is antiquated and broken. The “chill wind” has inflicted reticence everywhere, not just in how police officers do their job, but as well in how the public responds to police doing their job.
There is a “Ferguson effect,” but it is across the social strata. The public is concerned over alleged crime rates on the rise, whether that is accurate or not, but the public is always concerned about crime. That is a perception issue, as in the tsunami shift of the public now more likely to view police officers behavior as appearing “criminal.”
I get it, police officers do not want to get out of their car and confront a public armed with smart phones in hands held up cocked and digitally challenging them. Well guess what Mr. Director, no one wants to get out of his or her car any more. It’s dangerous and can be unhealthy. Whose camera is going to catch whose camera catching what criminal behavior and whose camera is going to be the judge to settle the ambiguity?
While President Obama and his Justice Department debate in front of political cameras with the Federal Bureau of Insidiousness also in front of political cameras, folks are increasingly not just packing weapons and smart phones, but also wearing diapers out of fear while they drive and or walk down their streets. We must come clean on our long ignored broken system. Just maybe, crime rates if they are in fact on the rise, comes from a perception that from the elected class down to the enforcement class, corruption, which is a nicer word for crime which is usually classified very differently than crime from the underclass, is on the rise, and therefore, from a growing sense of deviance everywhere, folks just feel emboldened to join in on the trend. Now, how’s that for a “theory?”
To claim that the “Black Lives Matter” movement and advocacy for righting an insidious justice system is killing police officers and killing their desire to passionately do their job is nothing more than a calculation to once again attack groups or ideas that do not fit law enforcement’s culture. The clarity between the good guys and the bad guys has gotten lost in the “fog of the war on crime,” as has the definition of crime and the meaning of justice. Recent comments by James B. Comey are highly offensive and slanders earnest attempts to fix a broken system. It is time for retraining, retooling and rebuilding cultural values in our vital agencies dedicated to keeping law and order. I remain highly skeptical of any “theory” on crime and crime rates. The “broken windows theory” of crime prevention broke when law enforcement lost the moral high ground and when the public’s understanding of the thin blue line between the perpetrators and the enforcers blurred.
Let us remember some basics so as to have a more productive conversation on the “crime problem in America.” Crime has no universal definition. Generally, when actions are taken that violate established rules of a society a crime has been committed. No crime in one society at a given time under defined circumstances is universally agreed upon as being a crime. Out of a desire and need to establish security to self-perpetuate, every society has invented mechanisms, dedicated resources and empowered folks to define and “police” unwanted behaviors, when and how to fight each, and when and how to take action against the perpetrators. How a society explains and manages crime, partially by reporting statistics to justify enforcement actions and secure enough credibility, respect and fear does define in a big way the quality of life of that very society. But we must accept that crime statistics are inherently wrong due to the prejudicial societal labels used to define crime by the power elite and that crime statistics are always used as a political weapon.
Now that the camera is finally turning on bad enforcement behavior and for the first time in my 62 year life there is a greater likelihood of police officers being indicted for crimes, let us not lose the stomach for a fair and balanced acceptance that bad apples exist everywhere, that the war on crime needs to be recalculated, that historical prejudices still linger from and toward all classes of Americans, and push back at public agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Insidiousness that live off of taxpayer’s monies and are too quick to blame the folks they serve.
Comments Off on The Federal Bureau of Insidiousness
September 11th, 2015
By Allen Schmertzler.
This is getting really interesting, “bing, bing, bong.” Pay attention folks. Labor Day has come and gone and the real push for a new president begins. Hillary is on an apology email tour as she is tanking, Joe is jogging, for the last time, Jeb inaugurates Colbert, and Trump proves he is no chump as he “bing, bing, bong” trash talks the minority on the stump to reincarnate Nixon’s Silent Majority.
This is exactly what America needs, The Donald trumping “bing, bing, bong” on the stump, his new rallying song to impassion Nixon’s secret reactionary social militia to come out from the political shadow to help him make America great again.
Remember those celluloid heroes that stood up to a changing America, the ones that represented the sentiments of Nixon’s silent majority, the Hollywood caricatures of that hardhat working class cursing, racist, misogynist “Joe,” played by Peter Boyle, or the living room sexist and racist, “Archie Bunker,” or the white redneck professional original drive-by hit men types from “Easy Rider?” Now, they are in the flesh at Donald Trump rallies. Finally, real, original Americans have their blue-eyed, blonde ( or whatever ) haired warrior, to lift us to the Promised Land.
Trump has coyly “loonied” them back from their Hollywood Boulevard star-grave to take America back. If we include the Moral Majority and then Phyllis Schlafly for his Vice President, I know the Chinese, Russians, Iranians and Mexicans will run scared. And, with Trump, Bible in-hand, but none of the content in-head, bullies to keep soaring in the polls promising lots of “bing, bing, bong” and maintains his front-runner status, our enemies will know we have become great again by unleashing our most deadly weapon, “Dr. Strangelove, the one who flew over the civilized nest,” the one who will verbally beat up anyone, the one who knows how to close the deal, and they will know there are no stupid people left in Washington. Trump will loom larger than the combined spirits engraved at Mount Rushmore.
Donald Trump, the really smart guy figured out, it’s about attitude, it’s about we are so sick and tired of platforms, ideological diatribes, soaring rhetoric, mind-numbing position stump speeches recycled and polled to target the hand-crafted organic, natural ingredients of a political party base. He knows we are madder and crazier than hell and will not take it any more. He knows we want a president with authenticity, who is raw and un-melting pot racist, misogynist, that hits a bellow the belt sucker knee jam into the delicate privates of the establishment, and who will viciously tongue-fu back against press elites who hide behind the skirt of the first amendment.
Trump knows we just want to be great again, and playing nice and civil and making apologies makes us look weak. We want a great man who repetitively says he is great to lead us to the great land that is free from illegal immigrants.
So, he stumps and insults. He stumps and thumps. He stumps and dumps with his eloquent low information “bing, bing, bong” until he, Donald Trump the chump, falls not too far from his stump, with his 30% of the 15% and claims because of him, because he made us talk about problems, made America great again.
Comments Off on The Trump Falls Close to the Stump
July 30th, 2015
By Allen Schmertzler.
I can remember how much the searing voice of Malcolm X scared the pajamas off of an America accustomed to a good night’s sleep, especially white America, and yet today, it seems so measured, rational, and in the context, understandable and tragic. But his message has been long buried.
Disenfranchised minorities with legitimate grievances are not waging either a defensive or an offensive “war” advocating violence against those that put a “hand” on them, even though institutional racism perseveres and they have been victimized by racial profiling, police shootings, outlandish stereotypes, and incarceration rates at grotesque disproportions to white society. The “crazies” with guns are, and it seems that the “hands” that ignite their rage are an exaggerated product of their paranoid delusions and socially unrewarding and disconnected world.
Sadly, too many innocents are being sent senselessly and unwillingly to the cemetery at the hands of killers with guns, in what appears to be at a greater frequency and without justified provocation. I am far more scared today folks than when Malcolm X was alive. There is an insanity of gun violence epidemic in our society that has coupled with an insanity of silent denial from a majority of our elected class over this malaise.
In the past year there have been over 200 mass shootings in at least 40 states. A majority of the perpetrators were youngish white males who obtained their weapons legally. While this plague uproots lives, families and communities, the effort to legislate gun safety and control is going nowhere in many states.
To the contrary, we see sales of guns increasing after well publicized mass shootings and irresponsible solutions being advocated such as former Texas Governor and presidential hopeful Rick Perry declaring that allowing guns in movie theaters would prevent future such mass shootings. I am still uneasily waiting to hear about killers with guns being shot dead before mass killings by an armed “good-guy citizen” in a shootout of heroic proportions in a mall, place of prayer, theater, or, Anywhere, USA.
From too many Republican politicians we keep hearing fear-baiting perverse prejudicial stereotypes about illegal immigrants who are rapists, murderers and drug dealers with calves the size of cantaloupes invading our bucolic communities and ruining America. From too many of our institutions we keep seeing statistics that counter the belief we are a post-racial society. From too many of our Democratic politicians we keep hearing the silent tiptoeing around to prevent awakening the NRA hornet’s nest that sting to death their electoral position.
If we are going to wage an honest war against people who are wreaking havoc on our freedom, then the real question begs, when will there be an honest public discourse on the dominant profile of mass shooters, with the same vigilant war against that crime, which we have waged against other evils?
When will our society conclude that perhaps the second amendment as it’s current interpretation, is not a price worth paying? There can be no real freedom when there is no real freedom from fear that another mass shooting can occur anywhere. Louisiana Governor and presidential hopeful Bobby Jindal, stated how shocked folks were that a mass shooting could occur in our town of Lafayette. That is disingenuous, dishonest, and an ignorant abandonment of the very epidemic everybody must understand and expect today.
Every location where folks gather under a lost reasonable expectation of safety must understand that fear and anxiety now occupies, Anywhere, USA. To be peaceful, courteous, obey the law and respect everyone means we cannot continue with our arms race. We cannot shoot our way out of this malaise by sending the mentally imbalanced and their victims to the cemetery.
Comments Off on Be Peaceful, Be Courteous, Obey the Law, Respect Everyone
July 25th, 2015
By Allen Schmertzler.
The Huffington Post gets it right again by relegating the Donald Trump candidacy to entertainment rather than serious politics. For now, Mr. Trump, the caricature of Republican politics is doing what he does best, entertainment. We are at the approach to the red carpet in our presidential election cycle, the place where the political class auditions and teases with how they dress, with whom hangs on their arm, and the color of their words. Therefore, for these few weeks prior to the first official debate even the other entertainer Donald, Donald Duck, would likely get a bump in polls, and perhaps more interestingly, probably talk more sense than the billionaire Donald.
Donald Trump is the Frankenstein wrecking ball that the Republican Party deserves. He is mean, vicious, self-serving, uncompromising, bloated, out of date, insensitive, and tells lies and distortions. The Donald’s worldview is to “real estate” people and places. He assesses a deal, calculates the kill, and mercilessly erases stuff from the landscape. He never was one to look back and remorse over the financial body bags plowed under by his bully bulldozers.
After multiple business and marriage bankruptcies, an ego-needy Donald Trump wants to go from the Apprentice to the Commander-In-Chief. Except, in his current role as Republican presidential candidate frontrunner, his shrink-wrapped script is running shallow, thin, and too riddled with holes to hold his narrative together for much longer. The surging surreal sideshow is about to morph into the sickening show. Presidential politics plays early on as a reality game show flush with curiosity and celebrity, but inevitably the hungry get into the thrill of the kill when weaknesses are exposed, and The Donald is soon to be set upon much as literature’s Frankenstein was hounded, cornered and returned to his previous life.
Whilst this larger process takes it form, some of the subtexts are just as revelatory. Republicans were very soft and slow to push back at Trump over his despicable prejudicial opening arguments on Mexicans. Donald Trump calibrated the moment correctly. He cornered the media “reel-estate” market on the 24-hour news cycle. His was a royal entrance with resonating a true Republican theme. Trump spoke as we expect him to, seemingly unfiltered, honest and true without holding back and without sounding like a real politician in public, but he fumbled the message. Adding more racial angst to a country still processing so much divisiveness, tragedy and falling icons, may have pandered to some folks, but immediately eliminated him from any hope of a national electoral trump. Maybe his real intentions are to just rock the GOP and fashion-up his brand.
Mr. Trump apparently not satisfied that he wounded and insulted so many in his first week “campaigning” rocked another powerful and revered slice of GOP Americana, the military-family complex. Finally, a larger offensive was launched. But why did it take his attacking a surrogate military symbol, John McCain, before most of his competitors and “RepubliCons” countered?
Republicans and much of the military family were thrilled in 2004 when Democrat’s presidential candidate and military hero, John Kerry, was falsely trashed and swift-boated. Their indignation over Donald Trump’s John McCain comment comes off as self-serving and political Republican contradictions. The crowd is forming to put down Frankenstein, before too many inconsistencies and GOP weaknesses are exposed.
In the meantime, I love the entertainment of Trump as Apprentice auditioning for Presidential nominee and his theme song of “Keep On Rockin’ The GOP,” before he gets voted off the stage.
Comments Off on Keep On Rockin’ The GOP
June 29th, 2015
By Allen Schmertzler.
Nail biting stress season is sizzling with suspense as the Supremes on the Court secretly work on dotting the “i-s” and crossing the “t-s” on their immensely vital rulings before sliding out of the summer heat of Washington D.C. We all like a good dose of adrenaline scary entertainment, but this docket of legal thriller decisions may be bad for one’s health and constitution. Just as “Affordable Care” may return to pre-existing, hospitals may experience a surge of admissions from SCOTUS-related syndrome while we wait like wanting patients in an emergency room for hopeful news.
The Supreme Court is positioned to rule on lifestyle to death-style issues, any of which can send post-traumatic seismic tremors that reach every family. I thank my lucky stars that the tenacious, notorious, and Justice-of-the-people, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is still occupying one of the nine court thrones.
Over the last several years, silly folks have tried to pressure her to retire in order to preserve her “liberal” seat by giving President Obama another appointment before the unknown outcome of the 2016 election. There is a majority in fear in the land over the prospect that the existing conservative five majority could extend to six, and greater alter the court imbalance toward corporate and conservative interests. So much so, they were willing to throw RBG under the bus.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg came to the Supreme Court via a President Clinton nomination in 1993. Although she is 82 years old and continues to combat serious health issues, Justice Ginsburg has emerged as a national treasure and enjoys celebrity-level status from across the American stratified demographics because of her fairness, her intelligence and her advocacy for rightness. There is no case to be made that she is unqualified to continue her service on the Supreme Court. As much as I loath Justice Scalia’s judicial perspective and his appearance of arrogance, I feel a bit reassured that there may be more to him than we get to experience knowing that he, and Justice Ginsburg are close friends that enjoy dining together with frequency. Is there another such legal equal that can unwind with wine and dine while whisper in his “left” ear?
As we await our end of the legal season verdicts, let us all assess and be reminded of how important our Supreme Court is, how vital a president’s opportunity to shape their legacy and the nation’s future is by their power of appointment, and be ever so vigilant in demanding of every presidential candidate what their judicial philosophy is, and how that will factor into what sort of Supreme Court appointment they would make. Hillary clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders have already made this a central issue in their candidacies. In the past, candidates have sound bit about the Supreme Court as a play to their base. Let us voters be sure to vet this issue thoroughly until we hear from these presidential hopefuls, that they will insist on “Notorious RBG” types, please.
Comments Off on More “Notorious” Please
June 29th, 2015
The false charade that has been blowing in the wind atop flagpoles across the south has finally worn threadbare allowing the light of the ugly truth to be seen. Looking back, I am chilled and astounded over how long the lies have been allowed, how easily the masses have been duped and how systematically history was altered, bleached, sanitized, and pressed smooth.
It was back in 1964 that President Lyndon Baines Johnson predicted Democrats would lose the south after his visionary and correct civil rights legislation became law. Despite the electoral and political consequences for Democrats, LBJ wrestled and arm-twisted his magnanimous legislative agenda into the fabric of American Constitutional Law. He saw it as the right thing to do at the right moment. He was undeterred. Immediately following this official legal end to the century old Civil War oppressive, racist and illegal way of life, the Confederate Flag was hoisted back into prominence, and symbolically waved in sulking defiance across the south.
This is a fact and this is why and when America witnessed the second coming of the Confederacy. White supremacist folks have cleverly been wolves in sheepskin providing cover for their real agenda, until the inevitability happened. A Dylann Roof, one of their own homegrown kids filtered the hate paranoid narrative thru his unhinged angst with action. It was the perfect storm bred in a culture of racial hate armed with guns proudly stalking in shadows created under the honor of a flag.
With the recent despicable tragic slaughter in the Charleston, South Carolina church hopefully comes a “check-mate” moment that can lift the white sheet called “proud traditions” to reveal the stained ugly truth of racism. Myths that get socialized and ingrained in the social psyche are tenacious, but they are not invincible.
Perhaps now another myth can be overturned. There is little capital worth fighting over to keep the Confederate Flag flying above the Capitol of South Carolina. Now is the moment folks at the Capitol can accept there is no capital in capital punishment. While all eyes are focused, and the nation’s outrage has coalesced around sweeping aside the symbols of the treasonous rebel south, this other tradition against humanity and the modern state clings thru myth. Seeking the death penalty for Dylann Roof would not be utilitarian, noble, nor serve society. South carolina’s institution of capital punishment, along with other southern states, is an old tradition much of the country abandoned. Capital punishment was a facade built and sustained as fresh paint on clean wood while riddled with dry rot. Capital punishment is shamed with the same institutional racism. There is no capital left in capital punishment. The timing could not be better to throw out the baby and the bath water. The message from the violated congregation that survives the Dylann Roof massacre is one of forgiveness, love and inspiration for a more humane future.
Let’s put an end to violence and killing, including sponsorship of terror, whether it comes in the form of an official state seal that legalizes killing, or as way of promoting ideological hate which gives cover to the unstable, unhinged and disenfranchised to kill.
Comments Off on No Capital in Capital Punishment
June 12th, 2015
By Allen Schmertzler.
There are two TV shows currently airing on cable that I loved at first but eventually abandoned because they make me sick to my senses and caused my sense of humanity to feel violated. They differ in what dimension of the time-space continuum they occupy, but parallel each by their temper and tone. Both depict a world fueled by folks drive for absolute power with unlimited seedy avarice. Shame and empathy for the casualties rendered into dust clouds of nothingness does not exist, as a pathological worship of power ushers behaviors. The “House of Cards” is “The Game of Thrones.” These shows are so cynical and dark with political players caricatured into personas beyond “Nixonian on Machiavellian steroids.” These are worlds without shame. These worlds caused me to think that my real time political actors were in a way more palpable. That is, until Dennis Hastert was reborn into current events and my outrage re-awakened.
Sadly, watching the former Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert’s scandal unfold, has me questioning whether TV may be better than I thought at mimicking the secretive, dark and creepy dimensions of political power. This political tale easily could have been written into any episode of either TV show. It can’t get much more cynical, more arrogant, more callous, more self-serving, or more disrespectful of the very institution that gifted him so much or the public’s trust. This sordid story of violating children and the long game of a cover-up is further evidence that our elite elected class needs a spanking of shame and felonious level punishment to deter their obnoxious and toxic excesses of abuse. It is so hard to imagine what went on behind the curtain of Hastert’s Speaker of the House of Cards.
To be fair, the Speaker of the House is not a job for the laid back, or for those looking for job security, or those that refuse to bend limits, twist arms and apply vice-like political pressure. The Speaker’s job is like living wearing a wolf’s skin lifting pork barrels in a sauna configured like an Ames Room with the thermostat set at a 107 degree schvitz, 24-7, with the requirement to always look cool, formidable and under control. The constant bruising from the persistent wrestling for power and position eventually erodes the effectiveness of the Speaker.
The taint of scandal and inevitable departure from the job under suspicious controversies is an occupational hazard, as well as a demoralizing feature for the public as their trust diminishes with each passing of power under awkward and scandalous circumstances. Although the statute of limitations protects against some criminal persecution and punishment, when a government official, especially when in the position of such potent power as the Speaker of the House breaks laws in their climb to power as well as while in office, the ability to seek restitution and punishment should never lapse.
Living several heart beats away from the White House and constantly wrestling with the opposition Party, staying ahead of the 24-hour news narrative, balancing the powers of Congress against pressure from the White House, suppressing restive and rogue and maybe even rebellious factions from one’s own caucus means being a rough and tough wrestler and wrestling coach might be a great asset for the Speaker job. Dennis Hastert had that experience. Many have said that Newt Gingrich destroyed the center of gravity in Congress. He retired his position after losing effectiveness, support and being forced out saying he was “not willing to preside over people who are cannibals.” Oddly, this was the best description of Mr. Gingrich, and does fair service to describe former Speaker Hastert.
At this point in our nation’s political evolution, one essential stands out loud and clear, and will likely play front and center to the upcoming 2016 election. We the people need NOW to be our time. We must wrestle power away from wrestling politicians, hiding behind a “House of Cards” with their sense of entitlement, arrogance, and shameless disdain for the folks that pay their bills. Politicians are our customers, not the other way around. We need a powerful deterrent to topple the House of Cards mentality and bring ethics, honor and integrity back into our political system. Dennis Hastert’s Congressional pension must be terminated. Taxpayers must never tolerate paying for a politician’s illegal activity.
Dennis Hastert needs to be shamed with a scarlet letter, permanently banned from jobs with financial rewards within three degrees of government. He should never make another dime from his wrestling with power and trying to bribe away his lies. The statute of limitations protects him against serious pedophilia predatory crimes. But when under the public oath of trust to serve, and sitting little breathes away from the Presidency, no statute of limitations should be allowed. So it goes in the Game of Thrones at the House of Cards.
Comments Off on Wrestling With Power in the Real House of Cards
April 17th, 2015
By Allen Schmertzler.
I could not believe the beautiful sound of that handshake orchestrated in Panama last week. I bet it was the shake heard around the world. Unfortunately, the melodic and sweet blue note of Obama’s tone is now being drowned out by the out-of-tune amateur orchestra section on the far right that managed to muscle in at center stage during the latest rendition of Cuba Revisited.
Playing sour Cuban salsa on tuba is Ted Cruz, who is competing with Marco Rubio’s clumsy-too-fast-paced flamenco on broken guitar strings. These potentially refreshing younger wannabe first-stringer-Cuban-Americans must have studied under the wrong conductor.
I hear out-of-touch-from-another-century wailing from their section. Please, can we get the orchestration correct, and move these two, along with their entire “Republicanos”-not-ready-for-prime-time that bang the war drums way out of balance off the stage so they can study and practice for a few more years, or at least until they can hit the peaceful notes correctly.
Seeing Raul Castro and the fading shadow of his brother, Fidel Castro, go flesh-to-flesh with President Obama was exactly the “Change I Can Believe In” that I twice voted for. This was precisely what candidate Obama promised to do before the country voted to accept his position.
When an elected official fulfills their promises we need to thank them. The Summit of The Americas in Panama was a great performance in concert that only confident gentlemen acting like grownups on the world stage skillfully using “new instruments” could pull off. They deserve a two thumbs-up with a standing ovation of multiple curtain calls, not ridiculous seedy foot stomping and tired and stale Cold War shrills and boos.
Last week a handshake, and now, removing Cuba from our Terrorist State list, brings hope for harmony to our natural neighborhood. Obama’s composition is Nobel Peace Prize and the tune is a Shake Heard Around the World. Bravo! Encore!
Comments Off on The shake heard around the world
March 28th, 2015
By Allen Schmertzler.
In the world legislated by a God of evangelical religious thought, fairness would rule. And, Rafael Edward Cruz would deserve to be treated as the flimflam circus act that he is, wagoning his vitriol around the country with snakes in hand and selling his snake oil remedies for societal pandemic problems as he selfishly self-promotes. Of course, his first, and his being-the-first orchestrated entry into the highest stakes 2016 political arena of wannabe president was a mockery as a canned event at some evangelical outpost of the societal mainstream, give me liberty or give me Liberty University, a venue so not democratic or representative of a forgiving god, that there was the threat of punishment of a fine of $10 for not flocking to fill his-the-philanderer’s “no surprise” announcement.
In this fair world, Mr. Cruz would suffer the same “birther” indignities that mocked Barack Obama by the same right wing that Cruz cruises with. Sour bitter doubt of legitimacy of citizenship would bellow from the underbelly of Fox and its subservient clones relentlessly etching coded racial hatred until the claim fused into an embodiment of his illegitimate presidency. But Rafael is white Tea Party stock, and there will be no such mockery.
Rafael is a Tea Party Texas Senator elected in 2012 but goes by Ted Cruz, a foreign born-natural born American citizen, born in Canada in 1970. His father was born in Cuba, but at the time of Ted’s birth, dad was working in Canada and was married to an American citizen born in Delaware. Rather than buy into the mockery of mocking what natural born citizenship means, Mr. Cruz deserves constitutional respect for who he is. The original parchment upon which the U.S. Constitution was written clearly gives Mr. Ted Cruz the inherent right to run for president. He is chronologically of age and meets the birth and residence requirements. However, we the people know he lacks every other anticipated criteria.
Mr. Ted Cruz has a wonderful American success story to share. We could all use another round of back-slapping congratulations and kumbaya collectiveness over how folks can come from diverse backgrounds to live the great American dream to beat the masses to the front of the line. But he has since being elected to national office nested his political fortress to the right of everyone. He mocks and mastectomies the glands that feed our Democracy. He speaks in hyperbolic levels of accusatorial nonsense without ever-lending a generous turn-the-other-evangelical-cheek to promote goodwill, kindness, and a seed to plant in the American Garden of Eden.
With the same evangelical fairness he professes, we need to kindly accept and welcome Mr. Ted Cruz into the great American Presidential Circus by holding him to his mockery and honestly fire back at him every bit of his hatred. Why does a person who has personally worked so hard to shut down government want to be government?
Ted Cruz has no clear path to become President of the United States. If he is serving his higher political design to push his party further right, fine. His way has been to disunite and ignite. Because I do not desire myself to sink to his lowest level of political schmaltz, I promise not to challenge his natural born citizen right to run and even hold the office of president. But first, he must prove he is not a natural born mockery, by finding the Wizard of Oz to receive his American heart and brain. Because despite his impressive academic credentials and pandering to the religious right, he has not demonstrated common core American intelligence or compassion worthy of any attention other than reverse-mockery.
Comments Off on Natural born mockery
February 24th, 2015
By Allen Schmertzler.
I love art and greatness, and when the two combine to herald and freeze forever the persona of a grand pubic figure, I consider that my altar of worship. Consider for example, a Rembrandt painted by Rembrandt! This is why the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. is one of my favorite American museums to wander around in. This is the national archive where from any floor, room, and or corner, American history hangs in glory in the form of portraits of great Americans made by great American artists. One can only be inspired from a visit here.
There are many venues that carry a similar mission around the country, but do so on a smaller scale with a local focus. The State Capitol Building in Salem, Oregon, is one such place. For a state that has had a relatively understated presence amongst our nation of states, the Capitol building is proud, distinguished, and houses some fine portraits of our state governors done by our revered artists. I consider a few of these portraits in the collection as great, and one artist in particular, Henk Pander, as great.
It is a daunting task for any artist to paint a portrait that satisfies its viewing audience. But when the subject carries the title and position of the state’s governor and is commissioned with the knowledge that the portrait will hang as public treasure, what criteria gets used to measure success? How much realism can a 2-dimensional image capture of the complexity of a 3-dimensional public figure? How does the artist capture in a frozen image greatness and humanness? And, what happens when the subject of the portrait, rendered in good faith at the time of completion is no longer seen in the same “light, color and mood” years later because newer revelations are disclosed that discolor the persona rendered that hangs on the wall?
The answer hangs once again in Salem, Oregon, where a portrait became a caricature. This happened to the once awesome and regal former Oregon Governor Neil Goldschmidt, a Democrat, whose portrait now collects dust in dark storage out of the public’s view. He is such a disgraced figure today that allowing his portrait to hang for public consumption supported by taxpayers is too ugly and painful. The artist had no idea how Mr. Goldschmidt was yet to be perceived years later because of the dark secrets that were successfully suppressed about his past. The artist did their job, but the Governor lied. The final portrait could not capture the honest and despicable dimensions not yet made public. Now the portrait of the Governor, is diminished as caricature, fodder for his name to be used as a verb, to creatively express utter horror in the form of survivor’s humor.
Such is the case with Oregon’s now former Governor John Kitzhaber. Governor Kitzhaber was re-elected in November 2014 for a historic fourth term. Henk Pander painted his portrait in 2009 during his first twice-elected tour as governor. The Governor looks measured, confident, relaxed with a leg crossed in a manly manner, his white shrit sleeves are rolled up indicating a less than formal but working character, he is wearing trademark western boots and blue jeans, speaking to an indigenous Oregon quality.
Kitzhaber is in the foreground with a view of the valley of the beautiful meandering Rogue River, he has his medical bag by his feet to honor his career as a dedicated emergency room doctor before ascending to the pinnacle of state power. Henk Pander’s portrait of Governor Kitzhaber depicts power in an Oregon sort of way, humble but exceptional, close to the hearts of the citizenry, measured, but clearly depicting a transformational figure.
This portrayal of the Governor Kitzhaber in portraiture is amazingly accurate and profound. The painting is as transformational as the subject. But it is incapable of measuring the man we perceive today. The man now reads more as a caricature. A tragic figure who lost his way. A caricature is like a portrait with equal effective artistry to capture likeness while playfully altering facial features and their relationships to push the impression of the image to express and or cause a bit of ridicule, humor and political satire. It is very likely that Kitzhaber’s great portrait by the great Henk Pander will quietly disappear from the Halls of Power to reside alongside the Goldschmidt portrait, out of date, out of fashion, out of view, and best forgotten.
In fairness to Governor Kitzhaber, his contributions far outweigh his failings. He fell victim, like so many powerful elected men needy of emotional massaging have, to influences below his belt and beyond his aging bodice. This is not to excuse his corrupted indiscretions. He did the right thing in stepping down within an honorable amount of time relative to his losing control of a positive narrative, and the state of Oregon political class did the right thing in cleaning house.
It is too bad other states have not followed the Oregon standard and taken expedient and proper measures to purge their governors and or elected officials after disclosures discolored their “portrait.” It seems as though these states prefer having a caricature in power. When the official “portrait” of the elected official, stands as a frozen idealized impression and fails to include the real 3-dimensional qualities, the portrait needs to be put in dark cold storage, leaving a caricature. There are too many caricatures in today’s elected class, and not enough portraits worthy of hanging as a public treasure to inspire.
Comments Off on When Portrait Becomes Caricature
February 21st, 2015
By Allen Schmertzler.
The revelation that Brain Williams, the icon of network evening anchor news, exaggerated his role in a war related news story is painful. In a trial the judge always advises the jury that if a witness is caught in a lie, then you must question everything that witness says. Similarly, in our post Brian Williams’s news world, we now have to pause and question the integrity of journalists. A trust in truth has been broken, and sadly, we must accept another damaged, maybe even broken institution. The victim from this admission is truth and a society that hungers to believe. We now live in a world prepared to abandon trust in institutions and give greater weight to “in what we can’t trust.”
Even though I, along with millions of folks, abandoned the nightly ritual of sitting by the TV around dinnertime to take in the day’s big news, the shadow of this drama casts a darkness that resonates across the land. The digital age revolution has liberated us from being leashed to phone cords dangling frustratingly from walls and from humongous super-size-me TV screens that occupied too much of our living space and could suck the life out of a room.
We can now get information any time on our own from smart devices wirelessly flirting with cyber clouds. We now can get the big news in faceless economized tweets, fast, visceral, focused and in our own private experience. The large community receiving the exact news at the exact time is mostly a cute societal pastime. Only those who stubbornly cling to a pre-digital world and are aging away from a connection to changing societal norms remain in the Brian Williams format. But the Brian Williams “Choppergate” scandal is so horrible because it contributes to the culture of “in what we can’t trust.”
Although Brian Williams was great at his job, he gave great voice, he had the looks and he was trusted — that job ceased being a news anchor when stories of crazy weather and of cute children and animals overcoming tremendous adversity became standardized requirements to pair with nightly overdoses of reports of death, destruction, war, malaise and fear to fill a twenty-two minute monologue.
The evening news is nothing more than evening entertainment. It is another programmed slot to capture a demographic in our capitalistic system to sell commodities in the form of highly stylized and expensive advertisements. Brian Williams became a brand name in that marketplace, ruled by ratings, ratings translating into revenues, and the anchor-as-brand behaving as if he was as important as the other content. Brian Williams stopped being a journalist when he crossed over into media celebrity stardom, got paid as one and lied. What would Walter Cronkite say? What can Americans still trust to hold integrity, ideas and content above the corrupting influence of money, power, greed and position?
The news about the news and the news guy is yet another example of “in what we can’t trust” and feeds an epidemic of distrust that is corroding the infrastructure of our collective. I am a 62-year-old guy with a full head of hair, stuck with one foot on the shifty digital bridge to the expanding world of mistrust, anarchy, divisiveness and shattered aspirations from too many fallen inspirations once seen as heroes, and another foot in the shrinking world where trust ruled — trust in voices of integrity, trust of authority, trust of a centralized governance or institution and trust that could hum me to sleep each night.
I was born a cynic, and for me to admit to miss the feeling of trust is nutty. But I ache for the good-ol’ days when news was news, when you trusted that journalists did the hard work to check the system of fact-checkers getting the facts factually. Now, all I can do is check my Twitter feed or cloud networks to find information, maybe catch a program claiming to be a news media outlet, while knowing the truth is somewhere out there but painfully cling to “in what we can’t trust.”
Comments Off on In What We Can’t Trust
January 27th, 2015
By Allen Schmertzler.
What sound does a deflating football make when no one is there to witness it? Probably the same fraudulent odiferous nauseating seeping sizzle wheeze sound of stale air escaping, just like the world witnessed leaking from Speaker of The House John Boehner while an inflated President Barack Obama gave his I Gotcha State of The Union address. It is the sound of a power vacuum in the inevitability game during the fourth quarter when defeat and loss is percolating and one decides to go long.
While the artificial turf of a power vacuum in the Middle East gives game to inflated competing angst ridden groups with logo and means, an odd parallel is taking form in our presidential political turf of 2016 as quite a plethora of inflated wannabes representing angst ridden groups with deep pockets of money are putting on their game to fill America’s power vacuum. Even Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney want in on the game. Okay, I agree, no big surprise. Sarah has a narcissistic love affair with her bridge to nowhere political shadow, Huckabee wants to sell more copies of his book, “God, Guns, Grit and Gravy” and Mitt, well, he has a magic calling from some divine force and refuses to believe he is not liked.
Although the 2016 presidential field will host a Super Bowl size noisy crowd of candidates, all most likely vanquished on the real turf that will amplify the sound of stale air coming from the deflated and recycled inevitability of a Bush v. Clinton smack down game. The score will be a 3rd Bush against a 2nd Clinton. In this competition, Hillary Clinton plays the candidate on the rise. She plays with advantage because of the gender card, a remarkable resume, is fresher from service yet has been out of the public eye long enough for the smell of a used car to slightly linger, but when the ignition is turned it will spew a fresh filtered sound and smell of a classic brand that may hold the public’s romantic interest.
Jeb Bush will play the candidate with the Lemon Law liability. Jeb’s brother, Mr. Texan swagger “W” has taken up painting, a bit too French for even nice Republicans, and still looks to be the most deflating of presidents on the history channel scale for a long time. To the weary public, Bush is a brand name synonymous with acerbic humor, and lingers like the smell and sound of a bad hangover. Perhaps it is not fair to judge Jeb with guilt-by-association. But he is the one here that comes across as the real boring inevitable candidate, long removed from political service and using his family name as destiny to compensate for a lack of charisma or passion. Jeb Bush has to own the sound of the deflated football “W” left behind and that the whole world still hears. It is a sound of horror, terror, and torture unleashed through fraudulent claims.
Either way for America, the presidential game is as inevitable as the Super Bowl, filled with inflated egos, too much money and incentive to “cheat,” too much hype, and inevitably leaves half the audience feeling deflated. In the inevitability game of Bush v. Clinton, we will need to stay tuned to learn how this plays out. For now, it feels more as a sad commentary on our inevitability game of two party presidential politics.
Comments Off on The Deflating Inevitability Game
December 9th, 2014
There was a celebratory flavor in 2008 and again with the affirmation election of 2012 when America felt it had become a post-racial society by turning the White House and secret codes over to our first President-Of-Color. Unfortunately, that was the easier step in what now looks to be a long and painful process to truthfully fulfill that ideal.
To undermine and alter the local systemic racially dysfunctional infrastructure that resides insidiously from sea to shining sea will be the true and way harder task. Ferguson, Missouri was only another lit match on the drought of an honest societal wide discussion about race and social class in America. Bad news infused with racial color has been live streaming across the media all year. There is more to come. Even the President’s daughters have now been targeted and racially slimed.
While a raw societal Ferguson mindset simmers across the country, President Obama, needing to look as though he is leading, invited notables to the White House for a summit aimed at problem solving the distrust and racial divide that Ferguson represents in America. Obama stated that this time, “things will be different,” because he, as the President is going to dedicate his last two years of office to work at that.
Again invited and present at the President’s advisory gathering was the once over-bloated incendiary civil rights warrior, the Reverend Al Sharpton. Currently, Reverend Al sports a toned stealth physique clothed in fine threads and is ever the activist for racial justice. His tireless voice still drones unapologetically when confronting inequality, but it is now more polished, focused and tempered so as to be welcomed from the streets to the suites. Even he has stated that things will be different this time around. I am not so sure.
We are living in a failing democracy with a hyper-militarized police force married to our Homeland Security apparatus. Security-surveillance cameras are everywhere. Obama is not proposing to size down the militarization of the police, or the surveillance state. Rather he is using this opportunity to strengthen it. Obama is advocating more training along with Federal standards and asking for $75 million for 50,000 police body cameras. I guess the belief here is that we will all behave better under the ever-present watchful video camera. The cynic in me is wondering which tech company, friendly to Obama and Democrats, wins this rich government contract. But of greater concern for me, is that the cameras might be a false sense of real change.
Let’s revisit the Rodney King beating and the criminal case against Los Angeles police officers in “Powell and Koon v. California,” that sparked even worse race riots. This was the first time ever that a video camera was used in a trial, the video as eyewitness. The entire country, even the sitting president at the time, seemed to view the video as a slam-dunk to convict the officers of brutality. But the defense used the video to their advantage.
The jury was led to interpret the video to favor the actions of the officers, just as any eyewitness can in cross-examination create duplicity, ambiguity and doubt as to what really occurred. We will always have a “before-the-camera and an after-the-camera” time period where a “he-said, she-said, he-did” testimony will get digested before the wheels of justice grind out the truth. Grand Juries will still hear police officers testify using language very reminiscent of the Rodney King episode, just as was stated by the officer responsible for shooting the young man in Ferguson, and most Grand Juries will not indict police officers. Prosecutors and police officers rely on each other.
Police wearing cameras may be a better situation that what we currently have. But with another government task force without a society willing to do the harder work, I remain the cynic. Americans must move beyond our self-back slapping congratulatory blindness and surrender to introspection to truthfully absolve us from the lingering and pervasive post slavery-racist history to move past it so as to inspire a future where “equal justice under the law” is a trusted brand.
Everyone, of every color, faith and being must first admit we all have a problem, without pointing fingers. This must be a bottom-up and a top-down process. We all need to reach across the aisle and spend time with different people. More tanks, armor and cameras makes it look as though we are even more divided and in a domestic war, and unless everyone with a particular viewpoint is eliminated, ideas, attitudes and hatred will survive, and maybe even harden. It will take more than Hands up, don’t shoot, smile, you’re on camera.
Comments Off on Hands Up, Don’t Shoot, Smile You’re on Camera
November 19th, 2014
Allen Schmertzel.
I live in Oregon and we just legalized recreational use of marijuana. I may need to smoke some, but for medicinal reasons, to create a new mental space to make sense out of how the country voted Tuesday. Welcome to our society of colossal contradictions, frustration, despair and anxiety. It is difficult to reconcile how this same country sent history on its heels by putting the first person of color in the White House in 2008 with a massive blue mandate for optimistic change. And here we are today one impeachment away from a total dismantling of President Obama.
With a miserable 60 percent disapproval rating Republicans had a marvelous victory sweep across the fading star spangled banner. Seriously, Americans elected a party that ran on empty. They now control most of the country’s political real estate. With both Houses of Congress, a big majority of the 50 governors’ mansions, and a majority on the Supreme Court, the American flag has turned decidedly red. What is left as blue may need to fly some surrender white and hope Hillary Clinton is a white knight riding to a 2016 rescue. But maybe not, considering the candidates she campaigned for took a beating as well.
The Cons of our Republic, the RepubliCons finally fulfilled their promise. Their shifty billionaire backers invested wisely. It was the day after Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky dedicated his energies to rally fellow Cons to do everything in their power to ensure Obama did not succeed. Six years and several election cycles later, their ground game con of obstructing, denying, misrepresenting, ignoring facts, and fine-tuning the negative blame-Obama-for-everything has paid off. RepubliCons are now unchained and in command. Mitch McConnell is the Senate Majority Boss. Harry Reid and Democrats have been vanquished from every leadership seat in the Senate and without shame but way too ironic, a climate change denier gets to lead the Senate Committee on the Environment and the party that keeps claiming they are not scientists will get to lead the Senate Committee on Science. This is going to be fascinating but I fear there will be lots of material for the late night comics.
To get a preview of how all this is likely to play out, look at how New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is again behaving as he too is surging. He has been all over the country at campaign stops championing fellow RepubliCons fattening up his 2016 “you owe me’s.” Somewhat liberated from his “Bridgegate” scandal and skinned of his phony Mr. Nice Guy skin, Christie “The Raging Bull” can’t wait to tell any contrary to shut up! If Americans are truly hungry again for a president with a strong combative swagger, who is over-confident, arrogant, apparently not too reflective, and with severe dysfunctional impulse issues Mr. Christie looms large.
Fascinating questions remain. What will RepubliCons unchained do? Will they balance advancing their aggressive conservative far right agenda with accepting responsibility for governing and represent a more center slice of America? With Democrats diminished and Obama hobbled how will Hillary Clinton play the presidential sweepstakes of 2016? Do we watch for legislation that appears meaningful? But hidden in the folds of the voluminous pages will be slick riders aimed to tear down Obama’s legacy and push him to pull out a tool he has basically not used, the veto pen? As he vetoes measures, will Democrats be labeled obstructionists with Obama being increasingly accused of lawlessness and subverting the Constitution, emboldening RepubliCons march toward impeachment in a wave of inevitability? Is impeachment the price that must be paid for RepubliCons unchained?
Comments Off on RepubliCons Unchained
July 16th, 2014
By Allen Schmertzler.
“Give me your tired” and Republicans demand President Obama meet them at the border. Give me “your poor” and Republicans demand they be sent back immediately. Give me “your huddled masses” and Republicans demand there are not enough jobs for Americans already. Give me “yearning to breathe free” and Republicans demand President Obama be impeached because his policies have weakened border security and are too inviting. Give me “the wretched refuse of your teeming shore” and Republicans demand no thank you, they’ll want to raise the minimum wage. Give me “send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,” and Republicans demand no immigration legislation, no pathways to citizenship, no back of the line. Give me “I lift my lamp beside the golden door,” and Republicans demand to increase the National Guard and security cameras across the border with punishing signs “no longer give me yours.”
Give me a surge of despairing women and children fleeing the misery of war and defying life-threatening odds and Republicans demand to purge them as welfare wannabes and maybe terrorists. Give me the dispiriting site of the crush of a humanitarian crisis at our border and Republicans demand to gag and curtain off Lady Liberty. Give me a president trying to dance in the middle and do right and Republicans demand recalcitrance. Give me hope and Republicans demand despair and fear. Give me a president that will not run for anything again and Republicans demand to poke a hole and drain his lame duck pond. Give me President Obama accusing Republicans of playing political theater and I give you President Obama playing political theater. Please, political elite class, no longer give me “your” inaction and divisive heartless sound bites.
This so-called “surge” of fifty thousand or so women and children are not in over-crowded refugee camps in Europe, Asia, Africa, or the Middle East. They are not trying to steal themselves into America. They are not a risk but are handing themselves over as victims displaced by war. Many are here to reconnect with their family already melted into the pot. There is no need for political finger-pointing to agitate one’s political base over this crisis. Folks are already disgusted enough. This is happening at our border and although rare, this is not an unprecedented humanitarian border crisis for America.
Back in 1980, America managed another humanitarian border crisis. During the Mariel boat lift episode, well over 125,000 Cuban refugees that flooded Miami between a Fidel Castro and Cuban-American organized exodus were assimilated amongst the free and the brave. Many families were reunited for the first time. But crafty communist chameleon Fidel Castro slipped into the huddled masses many of Cuba’s undesirables, their prisoners and mentally ill to free Cuba of this unwanted economic burden. Americans proudly lived up to Lady Liberty’s ideal until discovery of Castro’s ruse created such a political nightmare for President Carter that he had to turn off the “lamp at the golden door” to plug the dike to stop the leakage of “the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
History also reminds us of “The Voyage of the Damned,” where American’s response was tragic, pathetic, and political. In 1939, the ship MS St. Louis carrying almost 1,000 huddled masses of “the wretched refuse” of German-Jews seeking asylum in the land of yearning to breathe free was turned away and had to return to a Europe being swallowed up by Nazism. Frantic anti-Semitism, especially from Southern Democrats, put pressure on President Roosevelt to lock the golden door.
Here is what needs to happen in our current crisis. Stop listening to wannabe-presidential-guy-in-2016 Texas Governor Rick Perry from ground zero trying to score points with some “constituency” as he explains this mess from his perspective, which sounds as though he must still be eating those painkillers that screwed up his shallow and foolish presidential run in 2012.
President Obama should go to the border “lifting the lamp beside the golden door.” He should be photographed hugging the children and taking in the sorrowful sight of fleeing refugee children and mothers of war-torn Hispanic nations to remind the world that the man of drones and meta-data surveillance is compassionate and deserves his premature Nobel Peace Award. Why not hug the suffering, that’s what politicians always do best.
Comments Off on No Longer ‘Give Me Your Tired, Your Poor’
July 8th, 2014
True Blood, the magic, devilish, vampire TV world of shape-shifters where blood is a bottled commodity to drink in a bar and extreme graphic violence and sex is recklessly paired will finally have the stake driven into its heart and exit at the conclusion of this seventh season.
I remember the show’s big surprise lesson from season one that no matter how scary and powerful, vampires cannot enter your home without being invited. However, there is no end in site of the bad true bloody struggles between the five conservative and four liberal justices of our Supreme Court, and no matter how societal changing a Court decision is, the public mostly never gets invited in, never gets to be witness to these omnipotent secret cultish figures dressed in robes sitting elevated and fortressed behind sacred wood protected in their house from uninvited intruders while drinking their own ideological dogmatic “blood.”
We never get to see their clever shape-shifting after taking up the bar forever in residence chambered and sheltered from sun and light in our nation’s holiest building. We never get to experience these high priests of the constitution experiencing the life we live that they interpret for us. We never get to see whose influential blood and money they drink that becomes the magic elixir of their last words that toss the ingredients of our melting pot. We never get to see their expressions as indicators of how bad the blood between them might really be as they depart company after each session to take solace and recharge in their secluded coffined off chamber.
Throughout much of our history, we have mostly accepted, obeyed, revered and patiently waited with undying respect for the Court’s directives. We knew they knew better what was better for our society. For Americans, this was the place where evil, malice, patronage, cronyism, politics, and the compromising inducements of avarice and greed humans are so easily soiled by held to a higher standard that truly defined how great a system ours was. We hardly ever get to see this side of the court any more. Just as divided and unpredictable as the world depicted in True Blood, the Supremes on the Court dominated by extremist conservatives are driving the stake into the disunited states of America.
Recent polling supports the perception of a society absolutely at odds with all forms of government. The Supreme Court has lost the confidence of Americans. We are now adrift without a moral compass, without checks and balances, without a credible mandate voice in any of our three plus media equals four branches of government. A majority of voters elected President Obama twice with such a mandate. But increasingly, we are witnessing a court that has anointed itself as representative to its secreted world to drive The Stake to drain the blood of Obama-ism. What after-world can and will emerge in such a divided state and in what state of health and personhood will each of us be in at that time? As we do get to witness many hot spots around the globe descend into horror, can we save America and ourselves?
Comments Off on Supreme Anointment Court
June 21st, 2014
The best gifts are complete surprises. They can awaken a soul deadened by the doldrums of predictability. Likewise, the best historical events are complete surprises. They interrupt the rhythms of a complacent society lulled by statistical predictability that define impossible odds.
I love when history is made. It feeds in me a sense of renewal and hope in the future. I love that these events belong to every American and are our rare opportunities to share a community experience as a nation. However, the war to capture the narrative that interprets what lessons we take away to define the historical event is a minefield and can lead to dangerous and erroneous conclusions. This process is now evident in the fallout from the first ever “getting primaried” defeat of a House Majority Leader. There is shock and awe as we have gone from a Cantor to a Brat. What does it mean and why did it happen? What are the Cantors’ lessons?
There is the usual plethora of spin unfolding. Is it about immigration policy? David Brat was relentless in attacking Cantor’s position on immigration as job busting, ambiguous, too nuanced and not conservative enough. As well, some are warning that Eric Cantor was not conservative enough in general, despite his voting 96 percent of the time with the Republican line. Which must also be interpreted that the Republican Party is not conservative enough and better lean even farther right or else more dominos will fall. A more conservative obstructionist anti-Obama Republican Party is hard to fathom, probably even for many Republicans.
Was it about who voted? Some say too many voted, some not enough voted, some say the wrong folks voted. Some say too many Democrats exploited the open primary and voted for David Brat. Some say too many Cantor voters sat out the election believing he was a shoe-in. Others saw a lesson in the demographics of social mobility in the large turnout of newbies in the district that do not have the local long view of history with Mr. Cantor and saw him as a Washington insider. Many have expressed bewilderment as to how Cantor’s polling guru got it so wrong over the voters. There is too much irony and humor realizing that the same Republicans that have become the “no-science party” can get so outraged when the science of polling is bad science.
Was the lesson about Mr. Cantor? Did he stray too far from his constituents? Was it his being a member of crony capitalism, a “Chamber of Commerce Politician” and the most reliable advocate for the interests of Wall Street in Congress? Despite Eric Cantor’s tight connection to the money elites and his huge advantage in raising campaign funds, there are serious questions over how and where he spent it. Some have suggested that this election proves no matter how much money there is in the game because of the Citizens United case elections cannot be bought. “David,” a little known economics professor with a paltry sum of $200,000 beat “Goliath” with his $5million war chest.
The spin will continue. What is without doubt and the lesson best understood is that the public is anything but complacent and has no interest in status-quo politicians. Across the political spectrum, Americans are angry, and disenfranchised, loathe Congress, and distrust all branches of government, including the Supreme Court. Folks know that too much money in politics has perverted and emboldened politician’s arrogance and is causing a populist tsunami backlash against our “corporate welfare-political entitlement complex.” When only approximately 13 percent of eligible voters take the time to vote and can bring down a political icon there are serious issues for democracy. The stock market convulsing with the defeat of Eric Cantor symbolizes it best.
There is such a sense of outrage in the land with a force capable of both uniting and energizing folks to a common cause of bringing balance back to the nation or of further polarization. But for now, their Cantor is not singing and a Brat will replace him.
Comments Off on From a Cantor to a Brat
June 6th, 2014
By Allen Schmertzler.
More signals this week that the Obama presidency is standing on its last lame-duck leg. I have now lost any great hope to see progressive legislation until the country gets to reboot with a 2016 mandate. It was a wonderful dream of hope to have the country move progressively together, but for now we are going to have to leave progressive reforms to the states.
Obama’s administration has become an exit door. Jay Carney gives notice of his departure and Eric Shinseki resigns under duress to give his president some cover for what is going to be a very damaging and nasty scandal. This one has been stewing for a long time and is brought to us by the previous administration’s indiscretions and congressional neglect to lead toward the future preferring to play short-term politics. However, as commander-in-chief, President Obama has to own this one.
Meanwhile, the once self-declared compassionate conservative, former Vice President Dick Cheney, still mean, grouchy, gnarly, and vindictive, with his lopsided smirk and weakened heart, has been making the media circus rounds attempting to rewrite his legacy by declaring that President Obama is “weak,” maybe even the weakest president in his lifetime. Wow, really! This must be a case of Freudian “foreign-policy penis envy.” I do not feel sorry for how pathetic Mr. Cheney appears. I hold him in contempt. The world holds him in contempt, maybe as a war criminal. Truth be told, there never were “compassionate conservatives.” That was a clever election-year marketing slogan. But what this country needs now are the emphatic, sustained voices of “compassionate progressives.”
The optimism that sprouted from the 2012 election is lost. Americans aching for progressive change know the effort is lost at the federal level. No way will Obama get any legislation traction outside his periodic executive orders. Along with the negative messaging by our obstructionist Republican Congress, the president and progressive messaging are also being drowned out by a media obsessed with the insidious theme of “lost.” We the people have been seduced by one tragic news-story orgy after another. Consider how much focus the following recent stories have received:
Flight 370 is lost. I believe CNN is still allocating prime coverage on the missing plane, but it is lost, swallowed up mysteriously. A South korean ferryboat is lost, and with it, too many students, swallowed up by the ocean. Democracy in Crimea, maybe in all of Ukraine, is lost, swallowed up by Russian nationalism. Young girls abducted by Boko Haram from a Nigerian school are lost, possibly swallowed up in the world of female sex trafficking. A human life is lost in a tortuous way from a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma. Lost with it is the obnoxious, smug attitude that killing inmates can be done without violating the “cruel and unusual” clause of the Eighth Amendment. Another mentally ill, lost, gun-toting young man calculatingly commits mass murder. So many lives lost. So many families lost so much. Lost with it is another bucolic schooling community. This one is named Isla Vista.
But the “lost” story that has been lost in all this “lost” is the one about our 113th Congress, a no-show legislative body dominated by the same Cheney-like, not-compassionate-for-anything-but-their-own-power-grab types and their billionaire backers. It is the Republican majority that is lost, and it should get lost but won’t! They have no ambition to provide legislation to help a majority of Americans. Their goal is to kill federalism, at least until they can figure out how to win back the White House. If their strategy is to play up state’ rights, then bring it on, because the advantage goes to the blue progressive movement.
With the Obama coalition of voters empowered at the state level, the progressive agenda can continue. This will continue to be temporarily a Balkanization of quality of life. One state may have a higher minimum wage, one may have more or fewer clinics attending to women’s reproductive health concerns, and some may be more or less enthusiastic about embracing all aspects of the Affordable Care Act. As folks from neighboring states peer over their borders and see how good it can get, with just a little help from family-friendly, worker-friendly, women-friendly, financial-equality-friendly state government, they will demand the same from their own.
Women are at the forefront of these issues. They voted so in 2012, and they currently poll likewise. They are the majority. The country is ready. Hillary is on the move. Women want smart gun-safety legislation. Women want equality. Strong female voices from strong females with strong voices are going to continue to lead the charge for sane progressive and fair reforms. They are the core of the compassionate progressives and can bring that agenda back for the entire nation in 2016 and end the current state of Balkanization of equality, fairness, saneness and real compassion for we the people. All is not “lost”!
Comments Off on Compassionate Progressivism Can Stop the Balkanization of America
May 17th, 2014
By Allen Schmertzler.
Summer is fast approaching. Aside from vacations, warming sunshine of vitamin D and a full menu of out door smells, it is also time for blockbuster sequels to fill our viewing entertainment needs. Republicans are hoping their re-release “Benghazi Investigation #14” will be a smashing success. Their advertising campaign has dropped “Another Deadly Summer of Obamacare” in favor of “Benghazi Is Way Worse Than Watergate.” I give this sequel “two votes down.” I expect the Republican’s industry of this old and tired repetitive formula of everything-Democrat-is-a-scandal will fail miserably at the voting box office polls.
These are not our best actors on the red carpet at the Academy Awards. Right wing nut stars with their talking point sound bites have been unleashed and are saturating the news cycle. Republicans must be hoping that a Benghazi Select Committee under Trey Gowdy, U.S. Representative Of South Carolina can “Ken Starr” the Democrat’s hold on the White House by either soiling and or taking down both Obama and Hillary. It is a double feature, with two potential release dates, 2014 and 2016. This would seem to provide lots of time to build a loyal fan base, if only the storyline and directors were more professional.
In this sequel we find familiar themes to previous scandals investigated by Republicans. There is another Clinton dress in the wardrobe, not blue, but soiled this time from events above the waist. Hillary Clinton had a concussion and a rumor exists in the plot that she may be brain damaged. There was a Deep Throat in Watergate, and in a curious way one can conclude there was also one in “Monicagate,” but we don’t know yet if a Deep Throat will make a cameo in “Benghazi.” Whereas “no one died when Bill Clinton lied,” Benghazi sadly has a darker story with four deaths. There is the conspiracy of a cover-up, a must predictable element in these sequels. If the original events do not measure up to impeachable, then accusations of covering up can give everyone their money’s worth by keeping a mystery alive.
In conclusion, let me say, buyers beware. Even the trailer released on “Benghazi” which tries to raise the expectations of something new, with a former pit bull prosecutor turned John Boehner endorsed committee head, and possessed with awesome mutant legal skills has a musty sour odor and faded look.
The only scandal worth your valuable time, money, and now challenged right to vote is the failure of Republicans to govern and their obsessive obstructionism. I enjoy the magician in black pulling a rabbit out of his hat, or a Bond film, or a prequel, sequel or whatever of a Star Wars more than this lackluster “Not Star’s War on Benghazi.” We already have over 25,000 pages from 13 investigations at the expense of taxpayer’s millions. Just because Republicans must carry the burden of guilt forever over the darkest age of Watergate, there can only be one Nixon, and Benghazi is not Watergate. Now, let’s get back to our regular summer delights of real adrenaline thumping sequels filled with real great stars.
Comments Off on Star’s War Benghazi Is No Watergate
