Electoral Anarchy -- Campaign Finance Armageddon

"Supreme Court Bound? The Next Big Campaign Finance Case Set To Pick Up GOP Support."  See the link to that headline here.

I include the response of a blogger below my opinion.  MurphS has written, I think, a seminal piece on what Democrats and Progressives absolutely must do to stop the Republican stealing of elections through surreptitious means and stem Republican complete gutting of campaign finance laws once enacted by Congress to make elections fair.  Republicans will eradicate completely the McCain/Feingold law of 2002 that attempted to stem the monstrosity of humongous money corrupting political campaigns.  The electoral money anarchy deregulated and unchained creates a culture of corruption not seen historically since the robber barons of the late 19^th century.  Republicans want the ability to contribute gobs of cash to political campaigns to get what they want for their corporatist often racist and misogynist agenda through institutional bribery the funding of which Democrats do not have the ability to match.

We have the passion as Progressives. We came from the late 1960's and stopped a bestial war. We did that with our passion. Moreover, progressives secured a profound change for women, for minorities, for the disabled and for gays. Progressives did that. Progressives created a more relaxed culture with the eradication of various social mores that were inane. Progressives demanded women take control of their own bodies.  Who hears the phrase "old maid" now? One seldom does and that is because of us.  Now a woman does not need to be suicidal if she does not marry or because she does not look like a picture out of Vogue or because she ages.  She can earn money in many cases more than the man.  Progressives gave a voice in this nation to those who had no voice and power to those who were powerless.  Progressives made life fairer and more humane.  Republicans want to strip it all away and return to the suffocating reactionary, racist and misogynist days of yesteryear. 

My fellow passionate Progressives and Democrats, in November, 2014 get out the vote, get out the vote, get out the vote in local, state, and federal elections. Do not falter and do not fail.  Scream our progressive positions and take up verbal arms.  Scream back at the Republican “conservative” ugly opposition and what it has done when it circumvents the political process through gerrymandering, voter suppression and a corporate activist Supreme Court. Republicans steal power even though the demographics are changing because they cannot gain power any other way. 

Vote or you will lose the country we fought so hard over decades to create and the country it should continue to be.  Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good! Fight to continue the work Progressives have done.

Murp S BLOG:

        "THE GOP IS FACING REALITY- WILL THE DEMOCRATS?

THE GOP cannot win in a fair fight, so it will try to rig the electoral and finance game to ensure that those who agree with them have no problem voting and those that do not will face obstacles and restrictions; and to finance a tsunami of propaganda.

Much of this effort is backed by really big money from the GOP mega-millionaires and billionaires club. It's meant to take full advantage of the failure of Democrats to come out in the numbers necessary in 2010 to hold onto the House and onto key state legislatures which in turn led to the most radical redistricting in U.S. history since the end of Reconstruction.

SO WHAT ARE DEMS TO DO......????? LOSE THE MIDTERMS IN 2014 AND THE SENATE IS LOST, MORE LEGISLATURES GO RED, OBAMA HAS TO GO IT ALONE AND THE DEMOCRATIC BID FOR THE WH IN 2016 IS FURTHER IMPERILED.

1) The Democratic Party must stop pulling its punches; being polite and embracing the fake glory of bipartisan action. It must aggressively challenge everything.

2) The Democratic Party must develop the same kind of messaging and messaging discipline as the GOP has. Pointed, sharp, accusatory, demanding.

3) The Democratic Party must refute every lie: loud and clear.

4) The Democratic Party must make it painfully clear why Democrats and those who value the middle and lower classes must vote Democratic.

5) The Democratic Party must make one to one, door to door, phone to phone contact the cornerstone of its efforts bringing out the base and then adding every occasional Democratic voter to it while developing independent voters.

6) The Democratic Party must check and double check all of its registrations and get everyone the proper ID while educating its voters as to the real law and how to challenge fraudulent efforts to keep them from voting.

7) The Democratic Party must tap into the resources of every wealthy person who leans Democratic to get them to take on the GOP Big Money crowd in key states to buy the necessary time on TV and radio, in print and to mount far ranging internet efforts.

8) The Democratic Party must make the most of a national organizing project, spearheaded by Bill Clinton, to educate voters, demand reforms, and push back against restrictive laws.

9) The Democrats in Congress must push, and push hard, for the reinstatement of a meaningful Voting Rights Act knowing they will not get it but also knowing that demanding it forces the GOP to say "NO."

10) The Democrats must challenge in court every state legislature that passes legislation they believe to be unconstitutional and advertise their action in defense of the little guy.

Lose this one and lose a lot more than one election. This could well make 2016, 2018 and 2020 steep climbs despite the demographics."

GET OUT THE VOTE AND ELECT DEMOCRATIC PROGRESSIVES ACROSS THE NATION.  OUR NATION'S LIFE -- YOUR LIFE DEPENDS THAT WE DO!

Who Benefits and Why?

Headline: Vladimir Putin Pulls Russian Troops From Ukraine Border

The article is here or at the link below. 

Sanctions short of war can be brutal.  It is costing the Russian oligarchy too much money and Putin is among the oligarchs. The Russian people are as clueless as Americans are about the powers that send them to war.  Putin's fawners are being played like a violin. As long as Putin's posterior is not on the line just as the US neoCons posteriors are not on the line when they send other people's children into the lion's den to be maimed and killed.

Howard Zinn, my guru of choice, made a statement I now live by: When someone in power wants to commit you, your family and your nation to war ask the all important question: Who benefits and why?

Russians and we who fight the Pentagon's eternal wars of folly should follow that advice. Who benefits and why? Usually the answer is not they who fight the wars benefit but those who send them to do the fighting making oodles of cash in the process are the ones who benefit. The soldiers who fight their wars are maimed, killed, psychologically damaged for life and economically ruined in the process.

Who benefits and why? Ask the damn question no matter if you are Russian, American, Chinese or a citizen of Swaziland. In the modern era the 1% oligarchy usually benefit from war. That means unless you are among them the ones who benefit are surely not you!

http://newsdef.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/05/07/23789495-vladimir-putin-pulls-russian-troops-from-ukraine-border?d=1:

Magical Thinking and Death

Headlines:  "Researchers warn Oklahoma quakes linked to fracking boom could get stronger"

"China's coal solution has carbon downside across globe
Global carbon-dioxide emissions are climbing at rates that pose severe risks to the planet, and reversing that trend is heavily dependent on China [and the US] making cuts in its emissions."

Link here here or below for the stories

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/05/06/226647/researchers-warn-oklahoma-quakes.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter#storylink=cpy

It is not going to matter what the subscribers of inane fundamentalist Biblical mythological magical thinking think. Science has the last word as it is having the last word all over the world. The earth is fighting back against mans' poisonous fossil fuel carbon polluting ways with all the might that its science will allow and humans will be the recipients of how we have used, abused and destroyed the magnificent creation of our planet.

Blame it on god, on Revelation or any other illogical untruths, the truth of science will have the last word as scientists, the smart ones, have predicted years ago. Go along for the "conservative" and religious ride to die OR eschew phony magical thinking which will get you and your posterity into a grave way before their time and guess what?  You will be gone as if you never existed at all!

Fight big oil, fracing, the murderous Koch Brothers and their ilk by any legal means necessary!

HAVE TO SAY IT.  IF YOU WANT TO LIVE VOTE DEMOCRATIC AND PROGRESSIVE ACROSS THE NATION.  SEND THIS TO ANYONE YOU CHOOSE.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/05/06/226647/researchers-warn-oklahoma-quakes.html#emlnl=Morning_Newsletter

http://seattletimes.com/html/specialreportspages/2023517279_chinaenergyxml.html

Vaccinate, Vaccinate, Vaccinate--Prevent this 100% preventable disease

Take it from one who knows: Vaccinate, vaccinate vaccinate -- Prevent this 100% preventable crippling disease.  Give to organizations too who will vaccinate around the war-torn third world nations.

Read the link below.

WHO 

DECLARES WORLD POLIO EMERGENCY

here or

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/05/polio-spread-un_n_5266849.html

Robbed of a Life

I actually feel sad for Rob Ford, the alcoholic, drug addicted and severely overweight mayor of Toronto who was stripped of his powers as mayor last year. He is, thankfully, headed to a clinic while he vies for re-election too.  I hope our Canadian friends think better than to re-elect a hazardous-to-one's-life candidate.  It is at the same time, I think, simply sad that the human condition is so difficult for some in uncharted waters with many storms lying ahead.

 

There is so much so wrong everywhere in our globe that it is hard to wrap one's brain around it all.  Life is difficult for so many made worse by horrendous weather events due to man-made induced global warming and the climate change it has wrought.  The human condition is made insufferable by the devastation of our environment--people's homes crushed by intense hurricanes, floods, fire and drought for some even causing war.  Then there are the tornadoes obliterating swaths of our heartland and the American south like a Nagasaki nuclear bomb hit.

 

There are catastrophic weather events by the hundreds and science deniers impossible to convince they are dead (pardon the pun) wrong on the major cause of it all.  Their denial of man's contribution to our modern day holocaust through the gluttony of fossil fuel consumption is affecting and will continue to affect everyone even the ones who know science rules and even those that deny it does.  Worse, there is no end in sight unless, in their wisdom, the American people reverse the Republican-elected politically regressive Draconian trend they have set robbing all of us of a future.  The US needs to be the example to the world it once was.

 

Rob Ford had luck to be elected mayor but ruins his own good fortune and life while putting the people of Toronto at grave risk having a mayor who is completely out of commission.  He had the ability to either get help or like Nancy Reagan said (I'm no fan of the Reagans except Ron) just say no.  I did that with cigarettes in 1988 and never had another.  Cigarette smoking is one of the hardest addictions to kick but I just said no to it because I knew its poison can kill.  Counseling can help with the tough stuff of life and as we age.  As Bette Davis said, "Old age ain't for sissies.")

 

Rob Ford is young.  Rob Ford, take advantage of the blessing of strength youth bestows and make your life count for something by helping your fellow man and not hurting him.  Rob Ford, I wish you and all of us well!

 

NO NEED TO SAY AN ELECTION OVERTHROW OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY EVERYWHERE IS VITAL IF YOU WANT YOUR CHILDREN TO LIVE.  YES, REPUBLICANS ARE THAT MUCH OF A THREAT TO EVERYTHING FOR WHICH THIS NATION STANDS.  SHOW THE WORLD HOW THE US CAN RECTIFY ITS WRONGS -- THE BEAUTY OF THE AMERICAN SYSTEM.  GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC AND PROGRESSIVE VOTE EVERYWHERE. IT IS A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH! PASS THIS ON TO ANYONE YOU CHOOSE!

Tarnished Sterling

Yes, in our nation anyone can say most anything especially with respect to political or social commentary. But we are also a nation of consumers in venues like Chick Fil-A, Hobby Lobby, sports arenas and many others. Once the rational and humane consumer becomes aware of the owners' oppressive discriminatory thoughts and actions we do not have to support what he is selling so he can derive a huge profit and live in splendor while the 98% of us he/she uses and cares nothing about suffer.

Mr. Tarnished Don Sterling hypocrite "conservative" supreme cannot even obey his marital vows. So much for the "sanctity of marriage" about which conservatives scream from the rafters.

I show my disgust by never frequenting establishments that I know of owned by racists and others who are on that side of the right wing corrupt political spectrum. I take a stand. Whether others do or not is up to them. I think for the good of our country Mr. Tarnished Sterling should resign the NBA for his revolting racist sentiments in a league dominated by talented and skilled persons of color who work very very hard for the beast that thinks he is a slave owner doing them a favor. THEY, Mr. Hypocrite Sterling, are the ones doing YOU the favor!

For the good of the nation racism should not be part of our base. Only we can make it happen and only we through our vote can reject these charlatan "conservative" and often Republican know nothings before they usurp power they should not have!

Bundy’s Bund—The American Soul

In America in the 1930’s there were supporters, here, of the nascent NAZI Party and its German (although he was Austrian) fascist leader whose name I need not mention.  One could find some supporters of this unmentionable man in an organization that became known here as the German American Bund.  They were surely not the majority of Americans of German or Austrian descent just as the majority of Japanese in this country were loyal Americans but that the German American Bund was present in this nation nonetheless cannot be denied. 

Clive Bundy has an appropriate name because he is now one of the leaders of another bund, similar in philosophical racist nature to the German/American Bund of an earlier era and he is accompanied by other extremist rightwing militia malcontents who support him.  They, do not believe in the federal government unless of course if the White House were occupied by a wingnut nativist or when the federal right wing Supreme Court hands down decisions from the fabulous five justices they happen to love.  Curiously enough before the election of the half African American Barack Obama these right wing white supremacist nationalist hate groups were at an all-time low.  Elect Obama and their membership has exponentially grown.  Threats to the president are now commonplace as the hate they spread courses through the veins of Bundy-like nincompoops as a poisonous snake winds its way into the Nevada desert.

These know nothing English fracturing unable-to-utter-a-grammatically-correct- sentence Cretans should not be given the respect of newsworthy time which simply feeds the insatiable American appetite for sensationalist news and the networks' (Fox comes to mind) desire to make as many billions they can from it.  Bundy’s Bund is an American monstrosity that has as its ideological poetry underpinning a familiar ode in the racist segregationist south before and, indeed, after the Civil War.  It was no surprise Bund Bundy uttered the imbecilic racist “ideas” he did concerning the advantageousness of the institution of slavery to the Negro (his word not mine.)  His pea brain thinks and he says it would have been better for the Negro (again, his word not mine) had slavery not ended so Negroes could exist corncob pipe in hand, on their porch in familial bliss if they only learned how to pick cotton.  I suggest he try slavery himself sometime.  There is plenty of it around the world to test his assumptions.

The only thing more incredulous than what this sewage exporting guttersnipe Bund Bundy says is the number of American misfits who are standing at his side pretending to be Colonial Minutemen, weapons in hand ready to kill a federal government officer at a moment’s notice.  Bundy’s Bund is the reflection of a shameful fact of American life which is still even now in the nation’s blood resurrecting old Civil War canards nearly 150 years after the Union kicked the Confederate racists’ posterior costing us over 600,000 lives. 

Bundy’s Bund thrives on fomenting racist discord and its sidecar of violence.  The networks thrive on the money he makes them.  Shame on his supporter Fox News once again for the lies they perpetrate and the divisiveness they sow.  May Bundy and those idiots who support him slide back into the primordial cesspool soup of life from whence they came so the cancer that exists in our body politic can be exorcised and cleansed from our nation’s soul once and for all!

The Cycle of Life, the Blue Marble and us

The article below "Blood from world's oldest woman (115) suggests life limit" presents amazing science as it studies the blood of the oldest woman who lived to age 115.  

We know, all of us, that everyone and every living thing on the planet dies.  It must to keep the planet alive.  Can you imagine if human beings and every mortal thing on earth lived twice or even three times what they do now?  It would make the planet unlivable with an overgrowth that would be unsustainable.  Death and rebirth is nature's house cleaner; its insurance policy to keep the planet going and in balance.

And yet who among us wants to die or looks forward to the physical onslaughts of aging?  Humans have attempted, successfully, to live much longer.  Without medical intervention the human life span would be about 45 years but because of the medical and technological improvements of science it has been extended much longer.  We can see the difficulties (and the joys) that this presents.  In America it does seem that, culturally, we think of death as wrong; that it should not be but it must be, is, and always will be within our cycle of life.  It is, I think, one of nature’s rules as it is one of the human conundrums. 

The process of aging as the legend in her time, the actress Bette Davis said, "ain't for sissies."  It can be and often is difficult because we extend life beyond the dictates of nature’s command.  Youth all around us is filled with joy and enthusiasm but I suspect there are few of us once we reach close or to old age are so joyous to confront it.  Religion sees this and points to eternal life through faith.  For those of us who are in love with science the religious myths, at least for me, offer little to no comfort.  I am a realist.  Life is to me, as the philosopher Hobbs said, nasty, brutish and ever so short.  Despite this fact, though, life remains for me not long enough!

No matter what our human experience most, every day, go on yearning to take another breath, sometimes just one more, to stay alive.  Why?  For me it is because I love life's mysteries, the human ability (and seemingly only the human ability) to see its beauty, to understand it and to strive to see it one more day; to see one more mystery solved, to see history unfold and, of course, to see longer those I love .  I want to see how it all turns out, I want to know what happens and truthfully, in my egotistical way ever since life’s vale of self was lifted at about age 3, I cannot envision life without me.  It will, though, be without me, one day, despite all my attempts which are legion, to avert its end.  Life goes on no matter what, the planet will endure I suspect even with human attempts to kill it.  That blue marble planet in the heavens we can now see is our home.  We should do everything we humanly can to keep it blue, healthy and sustainable for those, whether related or not, who come for generations after us.

Blood from world's oldest woman (115) suggests life limit.  Here or at this link:http://www.aol.com/article/2014/04/24/blood-from-worlds-oldest-woman-suggests-life-limit/20875023/?ncid=webmail1

A Saint He Ain't -- NYT editorialist Maureen Dowd

If there is a better writer than the brilliant NYT editorialist Maureen Dowd I have yet to find him/her. She is on target every time and best of all she writes, if may quote the great Muhammad Ali, like a butterfly and stings like a bee!

here or http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/opinion/dowd-a-saint-he-aint.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0

How Fitting!!!:)

Meb Keflezighi stuns to win Boston Marathon

Nick Zaccardi

   

Apr 21, 2014, 12:12 PM EDT

1 Comment

AP

BOSTON – Meb Keflezighi became the first U.S. man to win the Boston Marathon since 1983 in a shocking upset victory Monday, one year after twin bombings rocked the world’s oldest annual marathon.

Keflezighi, 38, moved his sunglasses to the top of his head and raised his arms as he crossed the finish line to win by 11 seconds over Kenyan Wilson Chebet. He cried and was draped in an American flag on Boylston Street afterward.

It was around that same area last year where two bombs killed three and injured more than 260 two hours after the elite runners finished.

Jeptoo wins third Boston Marathon; emotional Flanagan sixth

Keflezighi won in 2:08:37, a personal record. Greg Meyer was the last American man to win in 1983.

Keflezighi, who was born in Eritrea and came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1987, won the 2004 Olympic marathon silver medal and the 2009 New York City Marathon, but he fell to 23rd at last year’s New York City Marathon and was the oldest elite runner in Monday’s field by three years.

Jeb Bush’s Rush to Make Money May Be Hurdle--NYT M. Barbaro

Yet another reason why we must push and push hard for Democrats across local, state and federal election lines.  Do NOT be duped.  The Republican Party is NOT about most of you!

Jeb Bush, for his shoddy and at best lackadaisical business dealings not to mention opposition to the ACA but running a health insurer that pushed mightily for it means that Jeb Bush is DONE before he even starts!  

Read the article below here or at this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/21/us/politics/jeb-bushs-rush-to-make-money-may-be-hurdle.html?_r=0

Jeb Bush’s Rush to Make Money May Be Hurdle--NYT M. Barbaro

By MICHAEL BARBAROAPRIL 20, 2014

Photo

Jeb Bush in Las Vegas last month. CreditJeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal, via Associated Press

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As it sought to recruit well-heeled investors, an untested and unprofitable Miami company named InnoVida brought aboard a trusted Florida figure in 2007: Jeb Bush, the former governor and the brother of a sitting president.

For potential stockholders, the imprimatur of Mr. Bush, who joined InnoVida as a paid consultant and a member of the board of directors, conferred credibility on the young start-up.

That credibility did not last long. It turned out that the leaders of InnoVida, a manufacturer of inexpensive building materials, had faked documents, lied about the health of the business and misappropriated $40 million in company funds, records show. The company went bankrupt in 2011, its founder eventually went to jail and investors lost nearly all of their money.

Mr. Bush left public office seven years ago with a net worth of $1.3 million and an unapologetic determination to expand his wealth, telling friends that his finances had suffered during his time in government.

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But his efforts to capitalize on his résumé and reputation have thrust him into situations that may prove challenging to explain should he mount a Republican campaign for the White House. Records and interviews show, for example, that Mr. Bush participated in the fevered, last-ditch efforts to prop up Lehman Brothers, a Wall Street bank weighed down by toxic mortgage-backed securities. As a paid adviser to the company in the summer of 2008, he met with Carlos Slim Helú, a Mexican billionaire, as Lehman sought to persuade Mr. Slim to make a sizable investment in the firm, emails show.

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Mr. Bush sat on the board of Swisher Hygiene, a soap maker, at a time when, its executives acknowledged, their financial statements were unreliable and their accounting practices inadequate. That admission contributed to a plunge in stock price that has wiped out more than three-quarters of Swisher’s value and touched off a wave of shareholder lawsuits. Several have named Mr. Bush as a defendant, accusing him and fellow board members of insufficient oversight.

And in a stint that could complicate his appeal to conservatives, Mr. Bush serves as a paid director to Tenet Health Care, the giant hospital owner, which supported President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, aggressively encouraged Americans to sign up for insurance under the program and trumpeted the legislation as a boon to the company’s finances.

The path from public service to private riches is well trodden by politicians of both parties. But, even by that measure, Mr. Bush took an aggressive and expansive approach to making money.

Since 2007, he has left few corners of the economy untouched, working on Wall Street, starting a consulting firm, investing in real estate, advising an emergency preparedness company, sitting on the board of a hospital linens provider, and giving speeches to grocery industry groups, local chambers of commerce and health care conferences.

He has been well paid for his time, earning at least $3.2 million in board fees and stock grants from publicly traded companies alone, records show. His corporate speechmaking appears to have generated millions more: He commands about $50,000 for his speeches, delivering more than 100 since 2007, though some are unpaid. And he has earned millions from his work as an adviser to Lehman Brothers and Barclays, the company that took much of the bank over, according to executives familiar with his arrangements. Today, his pay from Barclays exceeds $1 million a year, these people said.

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Mr. Bush declined to be interviewed. His spokeswoman, Kristy Campbell, provided a statement: “Jeb Bush had a successful career in commercial real estate and business before serving as Florida’s governor. After eight rewarding years in public service leading the state, he is enjoying running his own business again.”

His business endeavors are a largely overlooked chapter in a postgovernment biography built around his reputation as a policy maven, nonprofit leader and moderate voice in Republican debates on immigration and education. But as he explores a White House bid, friends said, Mr. Bush’s lucrative career is an unspoken but potent factor in his decision making. Entering the 2016 Republican field would inevitably require dismantling the business empire that he has assembled — an empire that now employs his son Jeb Bush Jr.

“Although he’s been at this for seven years, it’s the last few years that he’s begun to flourish as an investor and build a commendable nest egg,” said Al Cardenas, a longtime Bush friend and adviser. “Leaving all of that behind, all he’s built, is a challenge and a sacrifice for him.”

His overlapping commitments risk spreading him thin. At one point, Mr. Bush sat on the boards of six companies, twice as many as leading corporate governance experts recommend given the time and fiduciary responsibilities of such a position.

Fellow corporate board members are quick to praise Mr. Bush. At Tenet, they said, he has pushed for tougher hospital safety standards; at Rayonier, a major owner of forestland, he has advised them on navigating regulations.

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Eye-popping wealth long eluded Mr. Bush. His older brother, George W. Bush, reaped about $14 million profit from an investment in the Texas Rangers baseball team. But Jeb Bush’s career as a real estate entrepreneur in Florida brought him comparatively modest success: He entered the governor’s office in 1999 with a net worth of about $2 million, according to his financial disclosure forms, a figure that fell throughout his two terms.

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“People thought of him as wealthy,” said Lance deHaven Smith, a professor of public policy at Florida State University who has studied Mr. Bush’s career. He recalled that when Mr. Bush was governor, his opponents took to calling him a “spoiled little rich kid” to protest his budget cuts.

“It was a misperception,” Mr. deHaven Smith said. “He grew up in a wealthy family, but he took a path that was quite different.”

He seemed eager to change that by 2007, expressing frustration to business and political associates that he had missed out on a boom in the real estate industry during his time as governor; he also turned down a public pension when he left office.

Within a year of departing the Statehouse, he had signed on as consultant to Lehman Brothers, where he was eventually enlisted to reach out to Mr. Slim in a plan code-named Project Verde. Mr. Slim, however, was not interested in making a major investment in Lehman Brothers or striking up a joint venture with it. “Project Verde was unsuccessful,” Mr. Bush wrote to a Lehman colleague in early July 2008.

Lehman executives talked openly about the value of Mr. Bush’s family connections in the midst of the crisis. Lehman’s chief executive, Richard S. Fuld Jr., discussed the possibility of having Mr. Bush ask his brother President Bush to persuade the British prime minister to allow Lehman’s emergency merger with a British bank, according to testimony from the company’s bankruptcy case. Mr. Fuld never followed through, and Mr. Bush did not call the president, a spokeswoman for him said.

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Friends and colleagues said Mr. Bush carefully evaluates businesses before working with them. In the case of InnoVida, an aide said, he ran a background check on the founder, a flashy, Maserati-driving businessman named Claudio Osorio. It turned up the bankruptcy of a previous company, the aide said, but nothing to suggest wrongdoing. So Mr. Bush agreed to help market his technology, a construction system that required no cement, steel or wood.

There is no evidence that board members were aware of Mr. Osorio’s fraud. But Christopher Korge, an investor in the company and board member, said he recalled talking to Mr. Bush about their shared frustration with the company’s delays in distributing financial information and reluctance to hold regular board meetings.

In separate interviews, a lawyer for Mr. Osorio, who pleaded guilty, and a lawyer for a group of investors argued that members of the board had exercised little meaningful oversight of the company.

“It was done lackadaisically," said David A. Nuñez, the lawyer whose clients lost millions when InnoVida collapsed. If board members “did their due diligence, really did it, they would have been able to determine this company was not financially solvent and that it was a fraud,” he said.

Mr. Korge, a major Democratic Party fund-raiser who lost millions on his investment in InnoVida, said that once he alerted Mr. Bush to major problems inside the company, the former governor acted swiftly and forcefully to investigate them. “Jeb did everything that he should have done to protect the shareholder,” he said.

Most of Mr. Bush’s career in business has steered clear of politics, allowing him to carefully hone a potential campaign message by delivering speeches, granting television interviews and writing a book. But not all of his corporate work is in sync with his public brand.

Mr. Bush opposed the Affordable Care Act and has called it “flawed to its core,” like many of his potential rivals in the 2016 campaign. But unlike them, he has earned more than $2 million for sitting on the board a company, Tenet Health Care, that has loudly endorsed the legislation.

Tenet’s chief executive, Trevor Fetter, said Mr. Bush had made no secret of his objections to the health care overhaul at company meetings. But he suggested that Mr. Bush understood the difference between “personal views and what is best for the company.” Mr. Fetter predicts that in 2014, the Affordable Care Act will deliver up to $100 million in new earnings for Tenet.

A Brighter Day

The headline: "Republicans Aren't Moving On From Obamacare." The link:  here or http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/18/republicans-obamacare_n_5174935.html

I love the ad nauseum no issue issues Republicons keep trying to pedal such as the evils of Obamacare after trying to unsuccessfully repeal it 50 times.  They simply do not want people who need it to have affordable health care. Republicons would rather see people die because of maladies from which they should not die and Republicons have said so.

Republicons bring up their recycled "issues" ad nauseum (a good phrase) until one, indeed, wants to throw up from their never-ending whining and fake complaints. Republicons have nothing, zero, nada, zilch on which to run. They chew up, chew up, and chew up some more masticating their fake issues until there is nothing left to eat.

Obamacare is now a success beyond anyone's wildest dreams and it will be more so as time goes on.  What's a Party to do when it has nothing on which to run?  It loses and loses big. Hopefully, it, instead of the electorate, dies.

They have nothing because they are the party of obstruction-of-anything-Obama even if the president's policy is good because the failure of the Obama presidency has been, since 2008 the Republicons' only goal.  They lost in 2008, in 2012 and WILL, hopefully, lose in 2014 and beyond significantly so.

The country by November will have moved on and be cured of the fatal disease of Obamacare Derangement Syndrome because the president's signature health care policy is working and it will improve over time.

Absolutely no issue -- not Benghazi, not the IRS, not the authenticity of the president's birth certificate and certainly not the fake evils of Obamacare -- is going to work for Republicons.  The future sees a fractured Republicon Party serving cooked goose.  They are crossing their finish line dead last as the country eschews obstructionism, racism, and nativitist right wing violent anti-government sentiment that have, even by the assessment of many of their "intellectual" advocates failed.

Democrats and Progressives, DEFEND our good policy loud -- VERY loud -- and clear then make sure the Democratic Party and Progressives EVERYWHERE get out to vote in 2014 no matter how much Republicons try to suppress it.  We must get these Republicon albatrosses, finally, off our necks so the country can move on to a brighter day!
Democrats and Progressives get out TO vote and get out THE vote. Take back the House, keep the Senate and vie to win state legislatures and governor's offices across the nation. 

"Senate clears path for corporate tax giveaways"

Why electing PROGRESSIVE Democrats is the only way.

Here's the link or below to the headline above:  

This is where the SCREAMING MUST take place.  The bottom up must make and FORCE the change in the other direction.

Occupy Wall Street get yourselves in gear and make some eardrum piercing noise.  This is exactly why this "recovery" seems like the recession still but it does not to the billionaires.  I wonder why.  It does to those of us in the 98%. So many are smart, have experience andeven have extended degrees but are still laid off and STILL looking for work after YEARS of being without it.  

Sure give the unconscionable 1% the tax breaks they ship overseas or to hidden offshore accounts while people of worth and even youth end up living off savings, living out of a car or a cheap motel room because the 1% ran off with the bucks that trickled down to no one but themselves.

GROW a HEART, America, before it is too late!  Close the loopholes for mammoth gouging corporate interests, pass unemployment, minimum wage and while you are at it enact another stimulus to create jobs.  

Our infrastructure is crumbling and our oil producing filth is killing the planet.  Not enough to do?  I suspect there is TOO much to do!  So DO IT.

-- http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/senate-clears-path-corporate-tax-breaks

An Answer for Carla

Yesterday, I attended a Passover sedar as is Jewish custom at this time of year. The sedar meal retells the Biblical story of the Exodus—the freedom of the Jewish people from the grips of centuries of slavery.  Passover has had meaning, too, for many who are not necessarily Jewish but who still globally struggle with bondage and oppression.  The holiday has served for centuries to offer hope to the hopeless and to convey the idea of freedom to those who are not yet free.

It is a commemorative dinner filled with good food, close family and friends and it is also a meal of symbolic ritual as evidenced by various symbolic foods on a sedar plate.  The ritual, as delineated in a Passover book, the Haggadah, and as part of the commencement of the ceremony begins with the retelling of the Exodus as the youngest child asks the central question “Why is this night different from all other nights?"  Amid the retelling of the Exodus story there is a portion entitled “The Four Sons” – the one who is wise, one who is wicked, one who is simple, and one who does not know to ask about the Passover story.

The wise son wants to inclusively know.  Since Passover is heavy with symbolism I submit we compare it to circumstances we face in modern times.  I thought the most prescient question and the one with the most gravitas for our time was one that was asked of me by Carla, the lovely young daughter of equally lovely friends.

Our discussion centered in general around the violence of the day and more specifically the killing of three innocent people at the Jewish Community Center and assisted living facility in Kansas.  Carla asked me why people have to do that to one another.  I starred at her blankly at first as I contemplated the answer to this existentially profound question.  My inadequate response to her at first was “I do not know why man’s inhumanity to his fellow man is so prevalent but it is and it is unbelievable.”

On the ride home I thought about her profound Passover question, wondered why I could not have given her a better response and, more importantly, why I did not offer at least some solution to the sad reality of our violent time. 

Part of the answer is, I think, that man has been doing evil to his fellow man since the beginning of man’s time on earth.  It is, it seems, in the nature of the human beast or at least in the nature of the beast’s brain stem.  The other part of the answer should have been the solution to this seemingly eternal existential conundrum.  While violence may be endemic to our species non-violence and peace can begin with us too if we let it.  Many men and women have shown us the path to non-violence but it is, in the final analysis, we who are responsible for our own destiny, the masters of our fate and it is we who must oppose violence and war in our own time for all time.  It is at once as simple and as complex as that.

Carla asked the right question for the right time.  It saddened me that I could not provide a better answer to her so I am writing this as the 1,729 post in my nine year old blog to attempt to generally do so.  I thank my friends’ very sweet and humane daughter for spurring me to think about the most important question of our time—the violence of man.  What better time than Passover to contemplate its answer.

The Longest Hatred--A Better Day and Peace

In the 1990's I bought a tape entitled "The Longest Hatred."  It was a documentary chronicling 2000 years of hatred and its child of violence that has been the story of the Jewish people for centuries.  We mourn our dead yet again and go on living.

The killing of three human beings, two at the Jewish Community Center in Kansas City and one woman at an assisted living center close by is but the latest in killings that have become so common place in this nation that so many here barely give it a second glance.

I give it a second glance, a third and ask the eternal question why.  I mourn those killed on the eve of Passover as I would mourn them at any time of the year.  In fact, I mourn all those innocents cut down by senseless hatred that runs so keep into the sinew of the bones of man.

I am a secular Jew but I will say, at the sedar table tonight, a special Kaddish prayer for the dead (and the living) not only for those who died in Kansas but for all those irrespective of race, religion or creed who are the victims of man's inhumanity toward his fellow man and, indeed, I will pray for a better day and peace!