Earth Day 2015

President Obama is taking Air Force One to South Florida today to give a speech on #ClimateChange in the Everglades and right wing media are having spasms over it! I suppose they expect him to ride a bicycle to the event! Isn't this just like the right wing? They claim they think #ClimateChange is a hoax, then they rave about the fuel the president is wasting to fly to Florida! Republicans say that our President's environmental policies are job killers. Well, I say they should look in the mirror and ask themselves how many jobs they've created outside of the military industrial complex!

By going to South Florida, the President will draw attention to the rising sea levels and the impact that will have on the coasts of our country. Florida's tourist economy is based on it's coastal areas and if they are impacted by #ClimateChange then there will be a great loss of jobs.

In every way possible, President Obama and his administration are giving Americans concrete examples of how #ClimateChange will effect us. Let's pay attention and support our President as he tries to unite us in our efforts to protect the environment and stop #GlobalWarming! See this link for more:  http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/22/politics/obama-everglades-florida-climate-change/

A Case in Point

Political propaganda specializes in half-truths and innuendo. Winston Churchill told us how it is done.

A case in point is the recent statement by Reince Priebus about Hillary Clinton. In a Face The Nation Sunday interview, he said that Hillary Clinton took "money from kings of Saudi Arabia and Morocco and Oman and Yemen."  A Politifact article rates his statement as half true. It should have quickly pointed out that the statement was misleading and untrue in several aspects.

So, even in correcting the obvious trickery in Priebus' words, the article waits until the last few lines to state the facts. But the headline reads, "Hillary Clinton took money from the kings of four countries, GOP chief Reince Priebus says" Now, which do you think most who see the article will note and remember. Will they remember the correction or the headline? 

I will link the article so you can see for yourself how it is done:  http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2015/apr/20/reince-priebus/hillary-clinton-took-money-kings-four-countries-go/

And again I will caution you to be a careful consumer of information this political season. Question everything!

Are You a Critical Thinker?

As we move closer the 2016 Presidential election, we will be deluged with information about the various candidates. Now, more than ever before, we need critical thinking to process the information. The first quality of a critical thinker is rationality. This means we rely on reason rather than emotion and require evidence to support assertions. We are thinking critically when we weigh the evidence and consider the bias of the presenter. It also helps if we are aware of our own bias, prejudice, assumptions, and point of view. Critical thinking also requires honesty, open-mindedness, discipline and judgment.

So, are you skeptical, do you actively search for information, are you open to new ideas and information? http://www.criticalreading.com/critical_thinking.htm I hope I am. I try not to blindly accept what the pundits are saying. And I hope you practice your critical thinking skills along with me.

Outraged

There's so much to be outraged about that I don't even know where to start. Just a few that come immediately to mind are:  GMO's, war, poverty, NSA, every GOP presidential candidate, dysfunction in our Congress, 47 traitors letter to Iran, Donald Trump's comment about Hillary, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell's refusal to bring the Loretta Lynch nomination to a vote. All of these have generated some form of meme and post on Facebook, Twitter, G+, and other forms of social media.

We are getting pretty good at it. We get outraged, write a blog, find a meme, post it all over the social media scene and then move on to the next outrage. Sometimes, I think this is how we are kept busy so that we don't really pay attention to how the powers behind the scenes are steal our country away from us. Gradually, they are getting their agenda passed in our schools, our counties, our states and at the national level. Who are these powers behind the curtain? They are the "soulless ones" who live for one goal above all-PROFIT. Whatever increases profit is good. Anything that decreases profit is bad. All decisions rest on that basis.

Long before the Citizens United vs. FEC decision, the plan was unfolding to turn our country over to corporations. Corporations run the military industrial complex and now they own many in our Congress and statehouses. Profit is the prime objective. Privatize schools, Social Security, Medicare, etc. De-regulate corporations so they can increase PROFIT.

Will we continue in our outrage over a myriad of issues or will we unite to fight back against the forces that seek to turn our democracy into a corporatocracy? An Alternet article by Bruce E. Levine challenges us to fight back. http://www.alternet.org/economy/10-ways-fight-corporatocracy Check it out.  I'll leave you with a quote from it, "The elite spend their lives stockpiling money and have the financial clout to bribe, divide and conquer the rest of us. The only way to overcome the power of money is with the power of courage and solidarity."

Risking Everything

Yesterday, on #TaxDay, an unlikely "Hero" risked everything to call attention to the horrible effects to our political system from the Citizens United vs. FEC decision which ruled that corporate donations to political campaigns and Super PACs qualifies as free speech.

Sadly, his attempt at civil disobedience backfired. Yes, he successfully landed his gyrocopter on the lawn of the US Capitol, carrying stamped letters to every member of congress detailing his protest of the Supreme Court decision and asking for them to choose one of three options: "1. You may pretend corruption does not exist. 2. You may pretend to oppose corruption while you sabotage reform. 3. You may actively participate in real reform. "  http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/elections/ruskin-mailman-tries-flying-to-capitol-in-gyrocopter-to-deliver-campaign/2225584 

But it backfired because the narrative is not his stated objective. Is Congress looking at ways to fix the mess created by Citizens United vs. FEC decision?  Is that what folks are talking about today?

No, everyone is freaking out over how he was able to pull it off. Homeland security is trying to figure out exactly what is a gyrocopter. Media pundits are wondering why the Secret Service didn't know since many claim to have told them about Hughes' plans over a year ago. That is why his mission was a failure.

So, I'm wondering if we will ever talk about or do anything about fixing the mess created by our Supreme Court. I think the 2016 campaign should focus on what the candidates think about the decision and what they plan to do about it.

In case you missed it, back on September 11, 2014, DEMOCRATS in the Senate proposed a bill that tried to overturn Citizens United decision. Guess what happened? "But forty-two senators, all Republicans, voted no. As a result, Udall noted, the Republican minority was able to “filibuster this measure and instead choose to support a broken system that prioritizes corporations and billionaires over regular voters.” http://www.thenation.com/blog/181590/senate-tried-overturn-citizens-united-today-guess-what-stopped-them# For more information on the decision and its effects to our political system, please see this website:  http://www.opensecrets.org/news/reports/citizens_united.php

The reality is this:  We must elect a DEMOCRATIC president and majority in both houses of congress if we are ever going to overturn the Citizens United decision.

Now, get out there and start working to elect Democrats or Independents who will support their efforts. 

My Kind of Hero

The CEO of Gravity Payments just took a pay cut so he could raise the minimum wage in his company to $70,000. Isn't that amazing? According to an article in the New York Times, "Mr. Price surprised his 120-person staff by announcing that he planned over the next three years to raise the salary of even the lowest-paid clerk, customer service representative and salesman to a minimum of $70,000." Article linked here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/business/owner-of-gravity-payments-a-credit-card-processor-is-setting-a-new-minimum-wage-70000-a-year.html

It seems that he'd read an article about how income correlates to happiness.  It suggested that for folks who earn less than $70,000/yr a little extra money makes a big difference. 

Even more amazing is the fact that in order to do this for his employees, Price is cutting his own salary to $70,000 from $1 million. In a country where CEO's on average make 300 times their average employees, this kind of action is unheard of.  We desperately need more CEO's like Mr. Price and more companies like Gravity Payments if this country is ever going to address the income gap that has dramatically increased in the past few decades. 

This topic needs to be front and center in our political discussions as we approach the 2016 election. Which candidates will be willing to discuss income inequality and the gigantic gap between CEO pay and employee pay? 

I Like Money

Today is #EqualPayDay and I am glad that I worked in education where I had a union to protect my right to equal pay. It has made all the difference in my retirement. But, there are still many women who don't have unions to ensure that they receive equal pay for their work. According to an article in CNN Money, nationwide women earn 78 cents for every dollar that a man earns. This effects the economy now and later when the woman faces retirement. The CNN Money article includes an interactive map that you can use to check out the level of inequality in your state.  Check it out.
 http://money.cnn.com/infographic/economy/gender-pay-gap/index.html?sr=twmoney0414gendergapmap833aINT

In searching the #EqualPayDay hashtag on Twitter, I came across a website for women that is free and has interesting ideas for establishing what a woman's contribution to a job is worth. You enter some data and it generates tips that are tailored to your specific situation. Here is a link to the site:  https://getraised.com/

Democrats are committed to equal pay for women. If you are too, then please go to this link and sign up to help spread the word:  http://my.democrats.org/page/s/equal-pay-day-2015?source=em_20150412_dnc_misc&utm_medium=email&utm_source=dnc&utm_campaign=em_20150412_dnc_misc

We can make this a reality. For more resources see:   https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/equal-pay/resources#top