Category: Government

Grab and Go Strategies

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Whether it is a tornado, a hurricane or a blizzard it is essential to be ready at a moments notice

Grab And Go Strategies

D.S. Mitchell

AARP Does It Again

I love AARP magazine. It is loaded with information for the young, and the old.  I was on a clean everything mode recently. As I was cleaning out a closet I found an October 2017 issue of the iconic magazine. The issue was loaded with a bonanza of knowledge. I thought Jeff Rossen did a great job of telling the public how to put together a “To Go Bag.” A “To Go Bag” is exactly what it sounds like; a bag, a backpack, or suitcase (he recommends one on wheels) packed with life essentials.

Be Prepared

It is an important message. Being prepared, being ready for any emergency, is a good thing.  You never know when an untoward event will occur. The recent flooding and dam collapse events in the Midwest highlight our need to be ready for dangerous situations, day or night. Over the last couple of years we have seen the devastation and chaos caused by floods, fires and hurricanes. It can happen anytime, anywhere.  In my little corner of the world, the North Oregon coast, we are subject to evacuation orders because of  earthquakes, tsunamis, fires, floods and even a rare tornado.

Don’t Wait Till The Last Minute

No matter where you live there is always the possibility that you will be forced to move quickly out of harm’s way. Not all incidents of danger are caused by natural events, often these tragedies are man-made disasters, such as toxic spills. The principle idea in the AARP article is to take personal responsibility for your safety. One key way to help yourself is by being prepared for an emergency. A “To Go Bag” is a good place to start.

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World On Fire

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firefighters working to put out fires started during protests

WORLD ON FIRE

Trevor K. McNeil & D. S. Mitchell

Better Angels

Humans are complex. Neither angels nor devils, but something in between. As with many things it is a continuum. Abraham Lincoln understood this perfectly and touched on it when he referred to “the better angels of our nature.” As with human nature, so with human action. Which assists in understanding our history of civil disobedience. Particularly when it happens to turn ugly. Such as when legitimate protests based on genuine grievances turn into deadly riots.

Rebels With A Cause

Henry David Thoreau was a vocal abolitionist, anti-expansionist and a  conductor of the underground railroad. In 1849, Thoreau, an infamous proto-anarchist, published his essay “Resistance to Civil Government”.  “Anarchist” in this case meaning classical Anarchism. A political ideology that accepts rules, but opposes the notion of rules in a top-down coercive system, where using lethal violence, or the threat thereof, to keep the populace under control.  Thoreau advocated “resistance to an unjust state.” He said, “I ask for, not at once no government, but at once a better government”.  Thoreau said “the government that governs best is that which governs least.” Though notice the phraseology. Government. To govern. There being a vital difference between a government and an administration.

 Historical Perspective

America has a long, rich history of civil disobedience. “Fight the Power” being the unofficial national motto. Setting the American Revolution aside, one of the places this first came into focus was in lower Manhattan in 1863. From July 13th to July 16th, during the throes of the American Civil War, hundreds of citizens, many of them immigrants took to the streets to protest the draft that would send them to fight the Confederacy. What started out relatively peacefully soon grew into a large violent, three-day riot. In the end an estimated 120 people lay dead.

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Editorial: The Tyranny Of Trump

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EDITORIAL: The Tyranny Of Trump

By Trevor K. McNeil

That Old Tyme Religion

Generally speaking, there is a difference between old gods and what could be considered new gods. The god(s) of monotheism being firmly of the new school. The God of the Judeo-Christian Bible has gone through quite a transformation. He’s gone from a flaming-sword-angel-sending, flood killing-everything-on-earth, city destroying God of the Old Testament, to a Messenger of hope. Apparently, the Father felt he needed a new approach.

Police Violence

Loud, mostly non-violent demonstrations have filled the streets of America, again.  Four police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota have murdered another handcuffed black man.  Nothing new about that either. It seems a common event in this country. A large crowd was hanging out in front of the White House. AG, Bill Barr suddenly appeared, surrounded by a cadre of secret service personnel. He appeared to be surveying the situation. Minutes later, without warning, National Guard troops using tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets alongside horse mounted riot police violently cleared peaceful protesters from Lafayette Square and surrounding streets. The brutality was fast, savage and done without warning against passively demonstrating American citizens.

Brutal Passage

We would soon see the violence was done in order to create a path for Trump and his entourage to walk from the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church.  Once in front of the Priory House Trump awkwardly held up a Bible, turning it around, and around, in a bizarre manner, finally turning it upside down for a memorial photo. The newly proclaimed “law and order” president stood surrounded by his cabinet members posing for the media event. The self-proclaimed King-god of America now known as “Tyrannical Trump,” had used a militarized police force so he could shame the Bible, debase a church, and humiliate Christianity.  An action of sacrilege that, in the good old days, that would have gotten him a lighting bolt right between the eyes. Thor must have been off that afternoon.

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Sam The Sham And The Pharoahs “Wooly Bully”

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Sam the Sham And The Pharoahs

“Wooly Bully”

By D. S. Mitchell

Watching The Mailbox

My husband and I were married in 1965. My husband and I waited nervously every day expecting to find a draft notice in the mailbox at any time. He was in his junior year in college and did not want to disrupt his education. In those days there was a military draft and young men all over the country were being drafted. My husband and I were mentally preparing ourselves for that day we knew would come, and he would be sent to Vietnam. The United States had “advisors” in the country for at least a decade by that time. The Vietnam War was escalating in SE Asia, and the Cold War was growing hotter by the day.

Deployment

The rhetoric of the politicians described Vietnam as a domino piece and if it fell so would the rest of Asia. LBJ was president and he had been increasing the American presence in SE Asia dramatically. By the end of 1966 we had a young son, and my husband had finished his bachelor’s degree. After many long and tortured conversations he volunteered for the Air Force and deployed to the huge air base at Da Nang, South Vietnam. The year that he went to Vietnam “Wooly Bully” was screaming from every radio in America, and the American soldier took it to South Vietnam.

Protests Increase

There were major protests across the United States by 1968. LBJ sensing the country had turned against his conduct of the war announced he would not seek re-election. Richard Nixon said he had a plan to end the war. As Americans would see that was all a lie. And the anti-war protests grew. Seeing the people fill the streets outside the White House brought back those days vividly. Americans protest when American politics do not meet the needs and desires of the American people. When Trevor K. McNeil suggested “Wooly Bully” as the Calamity Politic’s Jukebox choice of the day, I said, “hell, yeah”. Here it comes, ready or not, Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs, in the long version of “Wooly Bully”.

“Wooly Bully” by novelty rock ‘n’ roll band Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs came out in 1965. “Wooly Bully” was written by the band’s frontman, Domingo “Sam” Samudio.” It’s all about the beat.

COVID-19 And Murder In Minneapolis

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Police form ranks to break up protests in Portland, Or

COVID & Murder In Minneapolis

By D. S. Mitchell

Grasping At Sanity

I hadn’t known, until I stayed home that the mailman stopped at my mailbox everyday at 11:30, like clockwork. Never before did I start planning dinner at breakfast time, but, I do now. I wash my hands at least twelve times a day, once for every hour I’m awake, unless I have to go out, or I get a delivery, then I hand wash compulsively every five minutes for at least an hour. Sometimes, I wonder how long I can hold onto my sanity.

Vacant Streets

The strange thing about the COVID-19 pandemic has been the quietness of the streets. The 24 hour buzz of the busy freeways is gone. The roads have been  almost vacant. Not in a post-apocalyptic sense, but certainly a sense of disturbing, quiet unfamiliarity. There is, however, an awareness of danger. A danger lurking on every surface and every person. The danger, although  invisible, has been scary enough to have people locked down in their homes, until Monday, May 25th.

Silent Killer

Someone called it, a “willing paralysis.” I’m not sure what to call it. Physical contact with another person could be a death sentence. The bullet, nothing more than a cough. As we have social distanced, we have heard new sounds. The sound of chirping birds. The sound of a singular child bouncing a ball against a wall. A neighbor, whom I’ve never met, playing his acoustic guitar, like a resurrected Michael Hedges. Not all killers are silent, or invisible. Some are intentionally visible and they kill with impunity for the camera. And now our country hears a new sound. A cry, a great and powerful cry.

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Guilt By Association

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Guilt By Association

By Trevor K. McNeil

A Little Bit of History Repeating

History is more of a cycle than a straight line. Those who have looked at it closely recognize trends have a tendency to repeat. Themes and progress ebb and flow in the oceans of time. Sadly, there are some areas where the water is darker than others. One such dark spot in the ocean of time is the anti-Chinese sentiment in North America.

An Ill Wind

One of the more damaging aspects of coronavirus, aside from the death toll, is the misinformation being spread about it. One being the Anti-Chinese sentiment, fostered and fueled by President Trump and his surrogates. Attempting to redirect blame from his colossal mismanagement of the pandemic response Trump continues his attacks on China. Our boneheaded and close to illiterate president regularly promotes the idea that the virus “came from China.”

Historical Reference

Did it spread through China first? Yes. Do we know for a fact that it is where the virus originated? Hell no. In fact, the Chinese point an angry finger to the United States military. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS–CoV-2) and coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) is new and poorly understood. The prevailing theory is that the original carrier was a bat. I’m not sure if you’ve ever noticed, but bats fly. Over a fair bit of distance. As a historical reminder the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic did not originate in Spain, but rather Kansas and was spread by American soldiers.  Not that it matters anyway. The country of origin not nearly as important as how to stop the spread of SARS CoV-2 and cure the disease among those who contract it.

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Biden Metrics

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Biden Metrics

By D. S. Mitchell

The Breakfast Club

On Friday morning, May 22, 2020 Joe Biden ventured ‘virtually’ out of his basement to talk to well-known radio host, Charlamagne Tha God, on his nationally syndicated radio program, “The Breakfast Club”. Charlamagne is a Black man, with a large Black audience. That means he has a lot of power to influence Black voters, a great many of them younger voters. Joe Biden’s interview ruffled a lot of feathers. And now 48 hours later the cable television shows are filled with chest thumping Trump supporters, Democratic hand wringers, and Biden apologizers.

Who I Am

Who am I to weigh in on this issue? Some would call me an elderly White woman. I would describe myself as a writer-journalist. It is all about perspective. First, I want to make it clear that by writing this article I am in no way attempting to minimize or be dismissive of Black suffering in this country. I am in no way putting myself into the shoes of any Black or Brown person. But, I will say, that Black and Brown people are not alone in their struggle against discrimination, including economic and physical abuse. As a woman I want to say I have been denied equal pay. I have been denied credit. I have faced verbal and physical attack, including rape. This country, for all of its proclaimed “greatness” is far less than what it could and should be.

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Bad Guys With Guns

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Bad Guys With Guns

By Trevor K. McNeil

Gun Culture

America has a gun culture. More than any other country, Americans love their guns. The only other place in the democratic world that has as many guns in civilian hands is Northern Ireland. Most of those weapons, are imported from the United States. Intended for use by the Emerald Isle’s alphabet soup of republican and anti-republican paramilitaries. ‘Republican’ in this case meaning to join the Republic of Ireland. Not that having more guns than an urban war-zone puts most Americans off.

Rallying Anthem

America’s gun love is so strong it has led to a willful ignorance seen in few other cultures. John Lennon wrote a satirical song, directly mocking American gun culture titled Happiness Is A Warm Gun. Weirdly, that scoffing rebuke of the gun culture has been adopted by America’s horrifically powerful pro-gun lobby. An instance of sick irony rivaled only by the embracing of Tomorrow Belong’s To Me, a song from the famously anti-Nazi musical, Cabaret, by the American far-right as their rallying anthem.

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Don’t Write Off The Postal Service

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The post office is in big financial trouble.

The United States Postal Service is in big financial trouble partly related to coronavirus country wide stay home orders and other economic issues.

Don’t Write Off The Postal Service

By Wes Hessel

Laying Post Office

The United States Postal Service (USPS) roots are so deep, they predate the country itself.  Benjamin Franklin was appointed by the British Crown in 1737 as Postmaster of Philadelphia. In 1753 he was promoted to one of two Joint Postmasters General for the American colonies.  On July 26th, 1775, the Second Continental Congress confirmed Ben Franklin as the first Postmaster General of the United States. In 1792 the congress created the United States Post Office through the Postal Service Act.

Service Oriented

In 1970, postal workers went on strike. They became the first federal employees to engage in collective bargaining. In 1971, the Post Office was reorganized into an independent federal agency and was renamed the United States Postal Service. By 1983, USPS received no public service funding, except as noted by Wikipedia, “subsidies for costs associated with disabled and overseas voters”.

Times Change

with so many business closing, postal delivery has been reduced, along with income.

The closure of so many businesses and colleges has reduced post office income.

The United States Postal Service had surpluses in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s.  However, first-class mail income peaked in 2001.  The agency faced intense competition from FedEx and UPS for parcel and express shipping.  Furthermore, email and social media, dramatically reduced Postal income.  One national crises followed by another also hurt the Postal Service income. First, 9/11, then the Great Recession and now the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Dr. Jill Biden: A Worthy And Empowering Woman

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Dr. Jill Biden:
A Worthy And Empowering Woman

By Anna Hessel

Visible Courage

Dr. Jill Biden, is a classic blonde beauty, who served admirably as Second Lady of The United States from 2009-2017, during the historic Obama-Biden administration.  She has, from the beginning of Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, proved a standout surrogate for her husband. She has guts. On Super Tuesday, Jill displayed that courage when protesters charged the stage during  Joe’s speech. Like a star fullback Jill shielded her other half in the midst of the fracas.

Jill-of-All-Trades And Master Of Many

Dr. Jill Biden was the only Second Lady to have a job during her husbands tenure as Vice President.

Dr. Jill Biden was the only Second Lady that ever held a job during her husband’s tenure as Vice President.

This faithful and spirited lady, while being friendly and feminine, has a backbone of pure steel.  Like many of our finest First Ladies, Dr. Jill Biden is an accomplished woman in her own right.  She has been married to the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, since 1977. While Second Lady she held a paying job (outside of government). Jill Biden is believed to be the only Second Lady to have ever worked during a spouse’s tenure as Vice President of the United States.

Education Her Passion

Jill Biden is a proud wife, mom, grandmother, pet owner and lifelong educator.  She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Delaware. She has two masters degrees, the first from Villanova University and the second from West Chester University. And, impressively, a doctoral degree from her first alma mater, U. of Delaware. Dr. Biden has worked diligently to raise awareness of issues important to women, such as preventing breast cancer, the importance of community colleges, and the sacrifices our military families make for America’s future.

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