17 Days to Go

It's hard to imagine a less likely advocate for heavy Democratic voter turnout on the 6th than Michael Cohen.

Yes, that Michael Cohen.  On October 19, Cohen said  Here's my recommendation. Grab your family, grab your friends, grab your neighbors, and get to the poll, because if not, you are going to have another two or another six years of this craziness ...,

Take him seriously.

18 Days to Go

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

In 2008, I taught at Lincoln University of PA, an archetypal HBCU, currently ranked in the top 30 % of such institutions.  The day after Barack Obama's election, students told me about what they faced when attempting to vote on campus.

Some were kept standing for more than eight hours in what appeared to be short lines.  Some were harassed by young white men in faux-Nazi uniforms.  Some were directed to voting sites that proved to be non-existent or not functioning.  Some were questioned, again by young white men, this time without the Gestapo-like gear but carrying clipboards, as to their party affiliation, and for which party's candidate they intended to vote.

Now fast-forward to October 2018.  While "only" a midterm, the upcoming election has a feel reminiscent of what my students experienced 10 years ago.  In recent days, we've documented efforts by Breitbart-ish Republicans to limit the ability to vote of those who disagree with the wingnut faction.  Undoubtedly, such exertions will continue till the polls close on the 6th.

I've already voted, by absentee ballot.  I didn't want my mobility issues to prevent my helping take back the House.  Hopefully, everyone reading this will vote, and help others to do so.

19 Days to Go

Tthe far right continues to freak out over the fact that registrations to vote, as well as early voting, have ballooned, doubling or even tripling in deep-red states in recent weeks.

An organization called True the Vote, replete with Tea Party types, sent hair- and pants-on-fire direct mail to supporters in Texas.  Those notices decried the en mass (True the Vote's spelling) submissions of applications to register to vote as a plot by (who else?) the radical left.

TtV needn't have worried.  The Republican Texas state legislature had already taken care of it.  They'd decided that all such paperwork had to be reviewed and processed individually, and by hand.  Given the volume of these applications, many will not be ready in time for the folks submitting them to be able to vote.

Meanwhile, in Georgia, Brian Kemp, the state's Secretary of State, arbitrarily blocked 53,000 applications for registration.  But Georgia didn't stop there.  A busload of African-American senior citizens wanted to vote at a site specifically designated for early voting.  They were turned away.  They were, in fact, ordered to get off the bus that was to take them to the voting site.

It's hard to imagine a better example of chutpah than that last ...

20 Days to Go

The wingnut faction in the Republican Party uses noisome tactics.  They make every effort to suppress the vote of those who oppose them

Georgia's Secretary of State,  Brian Kemp, is running against Democrat Stacy Abrams in the race for Governor.  As Secretary of State, Kemp has the responsibility to manage elections.  He apparently sees that responsibility as managing those contests to his own benefit.  Recently, Kemp discarded hundreds of thousands of applications to register to vote; the majority of those done away with were from African-Americans.  Stacy Abrams is a member of that community.

In Texas, 80% or more of the students at Prarie View A&M University near Houston are black.  They (and to be fair, all other students) were denied voter IDs.  Thankfully, this past Friday the Secretary of State in Texas backed down from the previously punitive position he'd taken regarding students' ability and eligibility to vote.  But the state legislature continues to be dominated by Republicans, and concern remains about the effect of that control on voting rights.

Many from North Dakota's Native American population have been denied the right to vote because their tribal IDs do not include a street address, but rather a P O Box number.  Think about the nature of Native American Reservations and the paucity of streets on them.  Then try to convince yourself that the Republican-controlled state legislature in North Dakota made an innocent mistake by instituting this policy, which they have not to this point corrected.  Thankfully regarding the latter, though, the Standing Rock Sioux are issuing new IDs that contain addresses of a format the state legislature accepts.

At one time, there was objection in (Republican-dominated) Arizona to the practice of printing ballots in four languages - not only English and Spanish, but also Hopi and Navajo.  Representatives of those tribes,and of Alaska's native population, presented their grievances to a group of Senators in Washington DC in July.  As the Navajo representative in DC, said Our folks who speak Navajo, but are still taxpayers in the system, should be able to vote,

Neither of Bodhi's babushkas spoke more than a few words of English, but like the Navajo, Hopi, Sioux, and others, were taxpayers in the system, and voted religiously ...

21 Days to Go

In a 60 Minutes nterview on Oct. 13 with Leslie Stahl, Donald Trump wore his ignorance and philistine tendencies like a badge of honor.  Responding to Stahl's asking if he were a climate-change denier, he said he believed out climate had changed, but that it could very well go back.

Article 1 Section 8 Clause 8 of our Constitution gives Congress the power to promote the progress of science and the useful arts.  Convincing someone as intellectually recalcitrant as Donald Trump of the reality and permanence of climate change, and of humanity's contributions to it, would be an herculean task.  But before Mr. Trump celebrates the return of the dinosaur, perhaps the House Energy Committee and its Subcommittee on the Environment, could clue him in.

By my count, there at least 89 Subcommittees within the standing Committees in our House of Representatives.  Controlling even a few of them - let's say Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education,  Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, or Communications and Technology -  could make a significant difference in our lives.

Of course, that would require that we recapture at least 23 seats in the House ...

22 Days to Go

As an advisor to Donald Trump, Stephen Miller hatched two analphabetic schemes: the Muslin travel ban, and the practice of separating families at the U. S. - Mexican border.  It's now reported that Miller considers the latter such a success at discouraging attempts to enter the United States that he wants to double down, and begin again to put kids into cages.

We noted a few days ago that Article 1 Section 8 Clause 4 of our Constitution insists that Congress, rather than a xenophobic employee of the Executive branch, define naturalization policy.  Congress could carry out that role through any of these Committees or Subcommittees in the House of Representatives:

Homeland Security
Foreign Affairs
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
Subcommittee on Border and Maritime Security

Sadly, though, as long as Republicans control not only the House but also the Committees just cited (and others), we'll have the risk that Miller's ugly approach to immigration and naturalization will prevail.

Only 23 seats ...

23 Days to Go

Donald Trump continues to avoid taking action regarding the fate of missing Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  The phone call to the Saudi royal family Trump promised on Friday hasn't happened.

Perhaps Congress can intervene.  Article 1 Section 8 Clause 10   of our Constitution assigns to Congress the responsibility to punish ... offenses against the law of nations.  If we read that last phrase as international law, we can legitimately conclude that the United States has not only a legal but also an ethical interest in the Khashoggi case.

Unfortunately, it's as unlikely that the current Republican-dominated House of Representatives, or its similarly dominated Committee on Foreign Affairs, will take any more action in this matter than has Mr. Trump.  Yet another scenario in which 23 or more additional Democratic Representatives might make a difference.

 

24 Days to Go

I've got fond memories of the Royal Bank of Canada ATM on Hollis Street in Halifax.  During my year teaching there, I regularly withdrew Canadian dollars from my Delaware County checking account, at the approximate ratio of $1.50 Canadian to $1.00 U. S.

The current currency exchange rate between us and our neighbors to the north is about $1.30 CA to 1 of ours.  What's not immediately apparent in these or any other similarly shifting ratios is the role played by our Congress.

Article 1 Section 8 Clause 5 of our Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate the value of ... foreign coin.  Our market economy and entities like the Federal Reserve do the grunt work in that context.  But my fortuitous financial experiences at the RBC ATM indicate that Congress has the more overarching role.

Several Committees in the House - particularly those in the category called Financial Services - monitor and manage such facets of our economy as capital markets, financial institutions, and monetary policy.   As is the case in any context, and as is documented at the link immediately above, the party that controls the House controls all its Committees.  That makes things like exchange rates credible testimony to the need for at least 23 more Democratic seats i the House of Representatives.