WHY ELECTIONS MATTER

There is method to my madness and thought behind my political beliefs. It is etched in our history the knowledge of which often is sorely lacking by the electorate.

In reductionist simple form during the 1929 Great Depression a remedy untried, until that time, saw government taking some collective responsibility for the unemployed of this nation which numbered then around 25%.  That's a lot of unemployed.

Roosevelt and his team reasoned if jobs -- government jobs -- were created and the unemployed millions could get them, they in turn would spend money and eventually these perfects against the Wall Street created Great Depression could lift the masses out of their quick-sand fate.  It worked for a time until the usual Republican obstructionists suspects temper tantrumed it and the "nine old men" (as Roosevelt called them) on the Court put a monkey wrench into Roosevelt's plan.  So what else is new about Republicans hindering a government plan that works?  Eventually, WWII and massive government spending to win the war fixed it, we thought, for good.

Our Great Recession of 2009, created again by an unregulated Wall Street gone haywire, our history and Great Depression reforms were obliterated by the Ayn Randian trickle-downers who thought the value of capitalist selfishness on steroids was heaven and just what the doctor ordered.  Unfortunately it nearly killed the patient yet again.

The same 1929 remedies that needed to be perfected in 2009 were not or if they were they were created minimally.  Because of the the 2010 Republican midterm sweep obstructionist politics reigned supreme. The hope of Democratic policies that the President wanted could have created jobs but instead the hope disappeared like a mirage in the desert and he was fought at every turn.

Below is an article that starkly shows why I say elections matter.  Republicans and their side car Tea Bag know nothings eradicated money for government agencies like the CDC which was working on an Ebola vaccine, they eradicated an extension of unemployment which would have significantly helped the middle class stay solvent and more stimulus which would have created more jobs.  More jobs means more taxes coming in, reduces the deficit and also means government can continue to help its people while the economy improves. 

The article below on NBC News explains the sad state of what once was a nation of middle class hope but now is a nation mired in despair where money is solely in the hands of the 1%.  It is why I say Republicans must NEVER be elected to positions of great power.  It is for these reasons I scream -- GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE ALL OVER THE NATION.  REGISTER DEMOCRATS TO VOTE AND MAKE SURE THEY DO!

This is what the Republican Party has handed you and will continue to if they take the Senate and other echelons of power.  Democrats, in truth, need to re-take the House, keep the Senate and give this president a chance to do what needs to be done.  Read and heed

the following article, learn why it does not feel like we have emerged from a recession and then pass this on. 

Highly Educated, Unemployed and Tumbling Down the Ladder

By Martha C. White

In the upside-down, topsy-turvy world of jobs these days, even an advanced degree can’t protect some Americans from tumbling down the economic ladder.

The conventional wisdom that more education bears fruit in the labor market gets turned on its head when it comes to unemployment. For people with masters and even doctoral degrees, long-term unemployment is especially insidious. At best, these formerly high-earning professionals face the prospect of a years-long climb back to their former level of income and stature, while they delay retirement to rebuild their decimated nest eggs.

Others won’t be that lucky. Debt, foreclosure and evaporated savings push them out of the middle class, and some just keep falling.

“Most of these people in this long-term unemployed category are experiencing downward financial mobility,” said Carl Van Horn, distinguished professor of Public Policy and director of the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.

Nearly half of the long-term unemployed in a Rutgers survey published last month estimate it will take up to a decade to rebuild their finances. More than 20 percent say it will take more than a decade, or that they’ll never recover. The highly educated are “actually in worse shape because they had farther to fall and had greater financial liability," Van Horn said.

42 and Living With Roommates

“I’ve had to seriously downgrade my living situation,” said Alex Gomez, a 42-year-old with a master’s degree in entrepreneurship. Gomez lost his last full-time job in 2009 and has been looking for work since a short-term contract position ended in 2012.

Gomez’s home was foreclosed on, so the Tampa resident lives with three roommates in a college neighborhood. He drained his 401(k) trying to save his house, and he has around $150,000 in student loans. His mother is tapping her 401(k) to pay his rent. Gomez subsists on that and about $200 a month in food stamps.

“I applied to a supermarket as a deli clerk because I used to be a deli clerk as a teenager.”

“I have been applying and looking for pretty much anything at this stage,” he said. Although he’s looking for work in engineering or data management, “I applied to a supermarket as a deli clerk because I used to be a deli clerk as a teenager,” he said. He was told he was overqualified and turned down.

“Even though jobs have been slowly recovering, these are mostly low-pay, low-wage jobs,” said Ofer Sharone, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management and founder of the Institute for Career Transitions, a platform that helps the older professional unemployed reenter the work force. “We don’t have enough jobs that require those levels of education right now.”

In a survey of 800 jobless professionals conducted by the Institute for Career Transitions, about 10 percent of the short-term unemployed had doctoral, law or MBA degrees. Among the pool of long-term unemployed, more than 18 percent held such degrees.

“I’ve seen clients who had to downsize, sell their homes, move into a smaller apartment, take in boarders… it changes everything,” said David Blustein, a professor at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education. “The financial consequences of long-term unemployment are hugely significant and very painful.”

Wiped Out by Student Loans

Student loans are an especially thorny issue. The U.S. Government Accountability Office finds that 3 percent of households headed by someone age 65 and older carry student loan debt, and the amount of outstanding federal student debt carried by this age group shot up from $2.8 billion in 2005 to $18.2 billion last year.

“The reality is a lot of people have gone back to school later in life, gotten MBAs or other degrees later in life, and the student loans are still there,” Blustein said.

“Financially, I’ve been sort of wiped out,” said Brian Maimone, an equity researcher in New York who, despite his MBA, has been unable to find work since being laid off five years ago. “I’m at a point now where I’m working at a car wash on weekends for cash flow purposes. Any job is a real job as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “Anything that could be liquidated has already been liquidated.”

“Anything that could be liquidated has already been liquidated.”

Reclaiming professional and financial stability is a long journey. “If you’ve been out of work for a year or longer, your road back is not a one shot deal,” said Joe Carbone, president and CEO of job training and education provider the WorkPlace Inc. “You have to look at it from the standpoint of two or three years.”

“For those individuals who have very advanced degrees and a good length of experience, it does become more difficult,” said Patricia Malone, executive director of the Corporate Education and Training program at Stony Brook University, which trains out-of-work professionals in project management. “They are competing against people who are 10 years younger,” she said. “It takes longer.”

Wayne Little can attest to this. An MBA who worked in sales at IBM for more than three decades, the 60-year-old has been looking for work after being laid off more than two years ago.

Little said he has sent out “well over 1,000” resumes and regularly logs five to six hours a day working on his job search. “I hadn’t looked for a job for 30 years,” Little said. “The world has changed… I was not prepared for the new world of searching for jobs.”

'It's very difficult out there right now'

Little’s family is leaning on his wife’s income, but with three kids around college age, he has tens of thousands of dollars in student loans, and he estimates about half of his 401(k) has been drained to pay basic expenses. Little said keeping their heads above water means cutting out “frills,” middle-class niceties most Americans take for granted, until they’re gone.

“The front walk is falling apart… Some of the things in the house we'd normally take care of, we're not.” Little’s car has well over 200,000 miles on it; his wife’s has 150,000. They don’t spend money on entertainment or gifts anymore. Maintenance around the house has been deferred, he said.

“We're not desperate, but we will be,” he said. "I've looked at jobs that pay half of what I was making at IBM and I would've taken them in a second.”

“I was making six figures at one point, and now I’m making $13 an hour temping,” said Lisa Casino-Schuetz, a single mother with a master’s degree who has taken a string of low-paying jobs to provide for her two college-aged kids.

The Psychological Toll

“In a nutshell, it's devastating,” Blustein said. “The psychological consequences are enormous… As people have to take lower level positions, it does confront their own sense of worth in a pretty negative way.”

Even working, Casino-Schuetz makes so little that she rents out a room in her house to a boarder for $500 a month. Her home and a condo she owns are both in foreclosure, and she has had her electricity shut off in the past.

The elimination of emergency extended unemployment last year made things worse, since long-term jobless professionals have to start liquidating their assets sooner.

“Across the board, the people who exhaust long-term benefits get a lot poorer," said Josh Bivens, director of research and policy at the Economic Policy Institute. New EPI research finds that only about a quarter of jobless Americans are drawing unemployment payments, down from a high of about two-thirds in the immediate aftermath of the recession.

I probably won’t retire. I probably will be working until the end the way things look now.”

Without unemployment benefits, the long-term unemployed must draw down their assets, which presents its own set of serious consequences. Once that money is gone, these families have no financial security today or for retirement.

“Some of them will never get back into the work force,” Van Horn said. “Those people... especially folks in their mid-50s and up, they’re going to be in very bad shape financially because they can’t even take Social Security already," he said. What's more, the benefits they eventually will be able to draw will be less than if they had worked through retirement without interruption.

"You’ll basically have more low-income older Americans,” he said, who will rely more on safety net programs like food stamps and heating assistance.

“Right now, retirement’s out of the picture,” Maimone said. “I probably won’t retire. I probably will be working until the end the way things look now.”

NEGLIGENCE IN DALLAS

The pivotal question it seems to me is the utterly mind blowing mistake that Texas Presbyterian made INITIALLY when Duncan went FIRST to the emergency room and was sent home with USELESS antibiotics which antibiotics are way OVER PRESCRIBED anyway as we know but in this case USELESS in the face of a deadly virus like Ebola. That is what makes my head spin. HOW on God's earth could a health care worker KNOW that Duncan was in Africa, showing a temp of 103 degrees and send that man home with a bottle of antibiotics? It is not only a civil liability in my opinion it is CRIMINAL negligence.

The question is is this healthcare worker who now is Ebola positive part of the INITIAL health care worker contact with Duncan when they sent him home? OR is this health care worker one AFTER that when they knew Duncan had Ebola, isolated him and suited up in protective gear? Duncan's treatment is STAGGERING in its stupidity and negligence INITIALLY knowing Duncan was in Africa came back with symptoms, a 103 temperature and they sent him home. Are you kidding me? THAT is the most important screw up.

Having had polio as a child 60 years ago NO ONE but NO ONE sent me home with a vile of antibiotics which would have done nothing. I was isolated and health care workers at that time were covered. Then again I'm from Boston and was treated at the best of the best Boston Children's Hospital by doctors whose knowledge and treatment of infectious disease were unparalleled.

That doctor or nurse in Dallas Presbyterian or whoever it may be who sent Duncan home THE FIRST time with a vile of antibiotics should be FIRED and we KNOW Dallas Presbyterian will be sued to within an inch of its life if this spreads any further and even if it doesn't.

Moreover, I might add Rick Perry and other Texas politicos' implication in this because they refused to accept Medicaid from Obamacare forcing the poor to fill up emergency rooms unnecessarily.

Yet another reason science denying Republicans should not be near centers of power. We are a doomed nation if they are! SIGN voters up and get out the vote for the only Party, the Democratic Party, which accepts rational thought and science!

Choosing Life

Below is the story about the just-married young woman who is choosing to set the date of her own death because she has inoperable and the most seriously aggressive form of brain cancer with a medical prognosis of only six months to live. I concur with her controversial belief that she wants to set the time and modality of her death and has set it for November 1.

I have personally seen throughout my life insufferable things done in the name of "saving" a patient and I always wondered the eternal question: save that patient for what? I have strong feelings about the humongous money spent to extend not life but seemingly never-ending pain and suffering.  I believe that to be a living death sentence in and of itself and out of the question for me.  I have told those I love as well as those who handle my legal and medical affairs that I never want an extension at all costs of a suffering and painful life to be my fate.

It is a personal decision and I am understanding of those who would not do as the 29 year old woman will. I, though, support her decision and would choose death when choosing a quality-life free from pain and suffering is impossible to attain. I place the story about it here or below.

I also place below two books which I think are of great interest and, related to issues about which I have thought and about which, perhaps, pertain to the issue in question here.  I hope (I say hope) to read them both.

http://www.msnbc.com/politicsnation/watch/woman-with-brain-cancer-chooses-to-die-339250243741?cid=sm_m_main_1_20141009_33180226
 
Author: Atul Gwande

"Being Mortal and What Matters in the End"

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0805095152/ref=botm_bill_center_spotlight?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-2&pf_rd_r=09TMV9CFG6M1BYBKF5ZJ&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1934209642&pf_rd_i=390919011
 
Author: Sam Harris

"Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality without Religion"

http://www.amazon.com/Waking-Up-Spirituality-Without-Religion/dp/1451636016/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1412945559&sr=1-1&keywords=sam+harris+spirituality+without+religion

Rock the Vote -- GREAT video

TURN OUT THE VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS ACROSS THE NATION and HERE IS WHY!!!

GREAT Youtube by Lil Jon and featuring Lena Dunham, Whoopi Goldberg, Natasha Lyonne, Fred Armisen, E.J. Johnson, Darren Criss, Sophia Bush, Ireland Baldwin, Devendra Banhart, Ioanna Gika and Gabriel Valenciano. Tell us what you're turning out for on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @rockthevote, register at http://www.rockthevote.com and turn out on November 4th.

here or http://www.youtube.com/user/rockthevote

In Truth -- Thinking About Ebola

Some think I am simply an alarmist or just a negative person.  Truly, I do not want to be but I am not one who denies or does not look at truth, no matter how unpleasant because in truth, science is our superior brain's armor against extinction.

I posed a thought I had about Ebola (and other viruses like D68) to a cousin of mine who is a doctor and a Stanford Medical School graduate.  I value his opinion when I try to evaluate lots of positions I take because he is so well read and most especially, on medical issues, because it is his area of expertise.

I ran by him things I was thinking about and asked if I was correct in an opinion about the Ebola virus I wanted to write.  He said what I said is well known and that I should publish it.  So I did below:

What I fear is not only Ebola but is the fact that every living thing is geared for survival and viruses are no exception.  What Ebola could do and what even AIDS does is show viruses' uncanny ability to mutate.  It provides living proof of evolutionary truth and the biological imperative of all living things -- man and viruses alike – to survive by any means necessary.

Unable to be seen with the naked eye aids the virus's amazing ability to survive sometimes too through mutation and to find a host – us – who have no immunity to it.  It is the mutation of these viruses into something easier to transmit that is the possibility which chills one’s soul.  Is D68 simply a mutation of the polio virus?  We do not know yet.  In the case of Ebola what I have read and what the CDC does not always say in public is they worry about its mutation. 

So far Ebola is NOT easily caught.  So far like AIDS it is spread only through contact with bodily fluids of an infected patient.  Unlike AIDS, though, one is only allegedly contagious when symptoms appear.  The biggest problem with AIDS is its ability to mutate rendering treatments and especially vaccines improbable if not impossible to develop.

That reality is especially worrisome. If Ebola did morph into another virus like it which could be easily spread through a cough, a sneeze or touching the button of an elevator then it would pose a societal existential threat.  It is then and only then that we are looking at a pandemic that could kill millions.  In addition, when our medical support system are coming down with the disease and dying who will treat the living sick?"

My cousin labeled it “Pneumoic Ebola” and further said it could "kill millions."

From climate change to infections disease science rules the day.  Those who would deny it do so at not only their peril but ours and not only their children's peril but everyone's children as well.

We must let science and its truth lead the way and then we, who are not science proficient, should scrupulously follow what its experts say we should do.  Science and the truth it brings is the only truth that, in truth, can set us free!

The ONLY science deniers are Republicans and it is why we must elect Democrats, the believers in science, to become our leaders.  It is true in the governor's office, it is true in the national Congress and it is true in the Presidency as well.  DEMOCRATS GET OUT THE VOTE.  Elect Martha Coakley governor no matter how many phoney ads Baker has trying to trick Democratic Massachusetts voters into voting for him, a Republican.  DO NOT DO THAT.  His party is the party of ANTI SCIENCE and ANTI CHOICE whether he says he individually is not.  When push to shove he will toe the Party line because the money sits there! 

Pass this to anyone you like!

Exceptional Nation -- Traitorous Jurists

Headline: Supreme Court To Hear Another Case On Housing Bias

 

“WASHINGTON (AP) — For the third time in recent years, the Supreme Court will consider taking away a powerful legal tactic the Obama administration and others have used to combat housing discrimination.”

See news article here or the link below my opinion.

The five so called "conservative" charlatans on the Supreme Court in the area of civil rights are eviscerating one by one advances gained over centuries for African Americans and other persons of color.  This part of the Court has no conscience, no empathy and no humanity if they are capable of doing such things.

I can fathom -- sort of -- the four “conservative” white men of privilege on that court eviscerating minority rights but Clarence Thomas, the resident conservative token H.W. Bush black man is one of the most intellectually bankrupt and morally corrupt hypocrites in robes to grace the Court. This is a black man who if our national culture had not advanced in the area of civil rights through progressive changers and liberal justices he would not be wearing the robes he does.  He would be eating at segregated lunch counters, he could not even go to the bathroom if there were not a "colored" one available nor could he go to a movie and sit anywhere he chose.  He surely never could have gone to the school of his choice without affirmative action and he never could have married the white woman he did.  This hypocrite votes the way he does and eviscerates minority rights saying nothing from the bench during argument when those (or really any cases) come before the court.

Clarence Thomas could never have led the life he did without justices who had the decency to decide in favor of policies for which progressives advocated.  Civil rights workers, progressive men and women of all stripes fought and died for the right of all of us to achieve our pursuit of happiness.

Clarence Thomas should remember Loving v. Virginia because that case gave all in this nation the right to marry whom they choose irrespective of race where in some states it was illegal to do so.  Clarence Thomas owes his life to the brave civil rights workers, lawyers, and protesters-in-the-streets who received bricks, bats and water hoses to their person so he and everyone else could have the advantages he has had.

The evisceration of what should be settled civil rights law by these "conservative," as FDR called his own nemesis court, "old men" is disgusting in extremis.

Justices Thomas, Scalia, Alito, most times Roberts and sometimes Kennedy are traitors to those things that truly make an exceptional nation!

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/02/supreme-court-housing-bias_n_5920484.html

YET ANOTHER REASON WHY DEMOCRATS SHOULD GET DEMOCRATS AND OTHERS TO VOTE DEMOCRAT ON NOVEMBER 4, 2014.

It's the technology, stupid --- NOT!

Mr. Duncan, the Ebola patient at Texas Presbyterian Hospital presented TWICE there with flu like symptoms and was sent home once with a course of antibiotics (useless for viruses and dispensed wily nily.)  He was admitted two days later with more severe symptoms, giving him plenty of time to interact with the population. Now 100 people who came into contact with him either directly or indirectly, including children, are being tracked and/or quarantined.

The blame, now, is being taken off hospital medical personnel and is being placed on a  technology glitch? Hospital big wigs are saying the computerized software did not share the TRAVEL part of the information so the treating physicians did not see it and did not know he traveled to Liberia.  Now that is kind of an important question concerning Ebola one would think?!  West Africa, including Liberia, is where over 3000 people have died from it!

Blame it on technology when you want to absolve humans of fault. A hugely horrible virus is out there in west Africa and medical personnel all over the world are informed of it. Travel, beyond almost ANY of the other questions one could ask a presenting patient, is one of the MOST IMPORTANT questions that should be asked everywhere.  Maybe the doctors there or someone should have asked that vital question and made sure it was shared or if not ask why it was not. 

Human beings are the ones who program these computers and human beings are the ones who see the data. Do you think one just ONE doctor or medical personnel could have asked an important question when they saw Mr. Duncan the first time and make sure that important information was shared?  Uh, let's see, Mr. Duncan, have you traveled to west Africa?  Easy question, right? Couldn't someone see they were NOT getting the most important data -- TRAVEL -- imparted to them then kick someone's posterior and say hey you know what why am I not getting travel info to help make my diagnosis of Mr. Duncan?

NO ONE RECOGNIZED the lack of travel information TO BE IMPORTANT? Oh, yeah Rick Perry, governor of Texas, let's see how you can blame it on Obamacare or how about blaming it on YOU who will not extend the Medicaid portion of Obamacare so people are not forced to use the ER for their primary care? 

Democrats, get out your thinking caps and see why the head of the State of Texas, Governor Perry, his cronies and his Board of Health staff were not monitoring hospitals and the questions they ask of patients because it was known it was just a matter of time before a case of Ebola would happen here and whether a patient traveled to west Africa or not is a slightly important question to ask and then to share, doncha think?!!

EBOLA IN THE US IS IN TEXAS -- WHY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS GOING TO LOSE.  GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE AND DO NOT LET THESE KNOW NOTHINGS WITHIN AN INCH OF HIGH OFFICE AND POLITICAL POWER!

The HATCHET MOMENT!!!

My faith is being restored!!  Martha still has the lead but it is very close.  She came out fighting Baker's eye popping paid for by the Republican party's scurrilous, mendacious and mean attack against Martha Coakley's efforts in prosecuting child abuse cases.  He downright lied.  So what else is new in Republican land? That is what Republicans do ... they LIE ALL THE TIME.  Martha was was by joined by Deborah Eappen mother of Mathew Eappen who died while in Louise Woodward's care and she supports Martha whole heartedly and calls her one of the most ardent fighters against child abuse and for children that Massachusetts has seen and she should know as Martha Coakley was front and center on the Woodward case and its prosecution!

I call this the "hatchet moment." I named it after the know nothing Scott Brown who accused the great Elizabeth Warren (who of course supports Martha Coakley) about Warren's Indian heritage by slurring her and his cronies waxing into a RACIST Indian war hoop chant.  Scott Brown lost the election for Senate and I believe it was at that moment he blew it and even more so because Warren was light years better than Brown. 

Likewise Martha Coakley is LIGHT YEARS better and more qualified than Baker.  Baker and his Republican cronies said the WRONG THING at the worst possible time.  It is going to be his downfall.  He BLEW IT!! So, GET OUT THE VOTE FOR DEMOCRATS EVERYWHERE, WORK FOR AND ELECT MARTHA COAKLEY THE NEXT GOVERNOR OF THIS FABULOUS STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS and send Baker packing like we did Scott the know nothing Brown!!!!

The article is in the Globe is pasted below send this email to anyone you choose especially Democrats everywhere to GET OUT THE VOTE! Those who are out of state get out to vote -- and do not step on your own toes.   VOTE the ONLY party that is for the 98%, the Democratic Party!

Coakley ‘disgusted’ by TV ad, calls on Baker to condemn it

By Jim O’Sullivan

 | Globe Staff   October 02, 2014

Josh Reynolds for The Boston Globe

Martha Coakley was joined at a press conference by Deborah Eapen (left), mother of Matthew Eapen, who died while in the care of au pair Louise Woodward, and state Rep. Jim O'Day (right).

SOMERVILLE -- A visibly angry Martha Coakley on Thursday demanded that Republican rival Charlie Baker condemn an outside group’s television advertisement that accuses the Democratic attorney general of not doing enough to protect children.

Coakley, who at one point choked up discussing her work on behalf of an abused youngster, called on Baker to seek the removal of the advertisement, which is paid for in part by the Republican Governors Association. The ad blames Coakley for failures in the state Department of Children and Families, or DCF, which resulted in the deaths and abuse of children.

“That is absolutely over the top, it’s outrageous, and I am disgusted by it,” said Coakley, who was flanked at her Somerville campaign headquarters by Debbie Eappen, the mother of Matthew Eappen, the 8-month-old who died in the care of his nanny, Louise Woodward, in 1997. Coakley prosecuted the case against Woodward.

She was also joined today by Democratic attorney general candidate Maura Healey, a former Coakley aide.

Coakley accused Republicans of “using child abuse as a political football.”

In response, Baker’s campaign did not directly address whether they would ask for the ad to be removed. Spokesman Tim Buckley said in an e-mail that Coakley “has yet to explain to voters her decision to fight child protection advocates seeking to reform a broken DCF that has placed the Commonwealth’s defenseless children in harm’s way. While Coakley defended the embattled agency and refused to call for the commissioner’s resignation,” he wrote, “Charlie Baker proposed a detailed plan to immediately fix the broken agency.”

Polls show Coakley and Baker essentially tied in the race for governor, with less than five weeks remaining before the Nov. 4 election.

Earlier in the campaign, Coakley had called on Baker to sign a pact designed to limit outside advertising, which Baker declined. Asked Thursday whether she would insist that anti-Baker super PAC ads funded by her allies be removed, Coakley demurred.

An aide later said that Coakley was not asking for Baker to call for the removal of other GOP super PAC ads, just the one discussing child abuse.

Vehemently VACCINATE

I am sure most of you know and I am pasting a link below about the news story that Children's Hospital in Boston has received four children exhibiting polio-like symptoms similar to ones seen in Colorado.  Polio-like symptoms for those of you who are unfamiliar with the polio virus itself means paralysis usually bipedal in both limbs but can be all limbs.  This paralysis often does NOT improve so one is left with polio's significant orthopedic and other consequences throughout ones life of a virus that is initially neurologically based attacking cells in the spinal cord and killing them. 

The virus seen now is an enterovirus labeled D68.  Polio, too, is an enterovirus that means that it is ingested at first and if it breaks through to the blood stream it can cause paralysis and even in rare cases death.  How close to polio is to D68 I do not know and neither does the medical community yet.  A non-medical suspicion I hold (I am not a medical expert) is that viruses evolutionarily mutate and wonder if D68 had done that from polio but this is not based on any medical fact.  It is simply educated questioning by me.

I know that there are some who do not realize the devastating effects of polio and are adverse to vaccination.  The ONLY treatment for polio is prevention through vaccination.  Vaccination SHOULD be mandated by law if one is to enter their child in school so a permanent herd immunity can develop.  Children are most at risk but adults are too.  I do not know if it is mandated in Massachusetts.  My opinion is that ALL vaccinations available to humans should be given and/or taken even by adults. There is, as far as I know, absolutely no connection between vaccination and a disease such as autism.  That is a false connection and, in my opinion, a morally indefensible one.

You will do your child NO favors by not immunizing them and you will do our nation at large no favors either.  In my opinion, it is criminal not to vaccinate and I am living proof of why I vehemently hold this view.  Polio paralysis is a life-long significantly life-altering disease that requires active attention always.  It is disfiguring and sometimes painful, it is significantly disabling, it is psychologically difficult, it is expensive and its consequences later in life are profound.

I do not know where D68 will lead and if a vaccination can be perfected for it but the one fail-safe preventative is, of course, thoroughly hand washing MANY times throughout the day for at least 30 seconds or the time it takes to sing "Happy Birthday" especially after doing those excretory functions all humans must do to survive and if you are cooking and/or serving food.  And I might add do not enter the population if one is sick.  If you have to sneeze do so in your arm and try not to touch your eyes or your face.

I am a vehement vaccination advocate and have many personal reasons why I am.

The link is here or below

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2014/09/30/boston-childrens-hospital-treating-patients-with-polio-like-symptoms/

Transparent

Natalie Rosen

16 mins ·

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3502262/

Transparent (TV Series 2014– )

Created by Jill Soloway. With Jeffrey Tambor, Gaby Hoffmann, Amy Landecker, Jay Duplass. An LA family with serious boundary issues have their past and future unravel when a dramatic admission causes everyone's secrets to spill out.

I have not seen this yet but Now With Alex Wagner the WONDERFUL afternoon commentator on MSNBC had Jeffrey Tambor the lead actor on for an interview. She called this series magnificent and and the actor brilliant. For the little I've seen in clips plus the interview of this wonderful actor this is I think a must see. I believe it is on a new thing for Amazon called Amazon Prime unfortunately I do not have it but at some point I HOPE Netflix will maybe or I will get it as a rental on DVD.

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Suicide Prevention

I am a poll watcher because I am a fervent believer in science and the statistical math from which all polls spring even though my own abilities in math fall into the stratosphere of negative numbers.  Polls, math, and science often do not agree, however, and so the question arises again who does one trust?

Nate Silver has been my guru of pollsters for many reasons mostly because he was one to get the 2012 prediction of the re-election of the president correct and predicted Ohio for the president. 

I also looked to Silver because I found his predictions then before the election of 2012 comforting as Rove and his band of merry immorals danced a frenzy around Fox News computerized Fox election central calculation room desperately trying to find a result that declared a pounding victory for his boy Romney. The only pounding that Faux Fox News gave the romping Rove was that which the president delivered to him.  Yes, I was giddy that night watching Republican racists wring their hands trying to figure out what oh what could they do to gain the minority vote.  Republican is an oxymoronic word that connotes the opposite of egalitarian politics.  Republicans trying to gain the minority vote is like the Ku Klux Klan trying to make a kosher meal.

Mid-term election November 2014 finds me in a worrisome stew.  The pollsters, almost all of them, EXCEPT Sam Wang of Princeton are predicting a Republican takeover of the Senate.

Republican takeover of anything is impossible for me to digest but Republican takeover of the Senate makes me, well,  suicidal.  How ANYONE on planet earth who is not part of the 1% megga wealthy can bring themselves to vote Republican I will never, if I lived to be 110, understand.  The explanation as I see it is white racism on steroids.  Even though the president is not on the ballot white racists are voting for Republicans because they loathe a black man in the oh- so-historically-white house.

Take pity on me and work your posteriors off for a Democratic victory across the nation to prevent a suicide.  Just kidding -- maybe.  Send this to anyone you choose especially minorities and women to get them to vote Democrat and find ways to vote even IF the rancid Republicans try their damnedest to rob us of the vote.  They cannot if you play by the rules and then show up November 4, 2014.

Call, write, smoke signal, contribute do ANYTHING you can to prevent a Republican takeover of the Senate.  We could lose EVERYTHING we have gained ... EVERYTHING.  I and we cannot take a Republican victory.  Republicans RUIN a nation and then rely on Democrats to save us from drowning.  PLEASE for my sanity crush Republicans in November. Prove Sam Wang right and save a life!

It's a Girl!!

Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, tweeted early Saturday morning that she had given birth to a baby girl named Charlotte.  A plethora of congratulations are pouring in on blogs one of which, of course, is mine.  Carrying one's genes on to the next generation is, for most, a celebratory event even if those genes one day get lost in an ocean of DNA.

It is that part of carrying on one's genetic heritage to the next generation for those of us who do not have children -- at least for me -- is the part I miss. Always contemplative about such things I think most know life and raising a child in it is not all roses and daffodils.

As I watched "The Roosevelt's: An Intimate Portrait," a Ken Burns's documentary Franklin Roosevelt, the future 4-term president, was a most loved and privileged only child. But his birth into this patrician family of wealth and privilege did not shield him from life's vicissitudinous onslaughts. Tragedy struck the gifted man upon whom fate, it seemed, always had shown and devastated his once beautiful body. Polio in the extreme permanently paralyzed both his legs. I commiserated with the life's burden he was forced to bear in the prime of his life, interrupting its trajectory as it placed a Herculean detour in his hoped-for road to the presidency. 

I wish Chelsea, her husband and the child's famous grandparents well and hope the she grows up smart, healthy and strong as even privilege carries no guarantees. Franklin Roosevelt made his lemonade out of the sour-lemon fate he was dealt.

But in the brilliant film "Ordinary People" Beth, the mother of a beloved son who was killed in a boating accident cries to her brother on a golf course of wealth when he tells her to be happy. She says to him:

"Happy? Ward you tell me what's happy? But first you better make sure your kids are safe. That none of them have fallen out of a tree, or been hit by a car, or drowned in that pool you're so proud of! Then you come to me and tell me how to be happy!"

I love that scene, for which Mary Tyler Moore should have gotten best actress because it snaps us into reality that for some life does not always bring a festive New Year's Eve joy but a long difficult journey through a mountain of uncertainly.  I wish for Chelsea's child the ability to plod on through the inevitable bramble seeking the light and the gift we are given for a very short time to see that light and all the beauty that shines through.

The Coffee Cup Salute

CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW TO KNOW EXACTLY WHY REPUBLICANS CAN NEVER EVER BE ELECTED TO ANYTHING NOT EVEN DOG CATCHER.  CONSERVATIVES IN THEIR OWN DISGUSTING FASHION BY THE FOX NEWS CONVEYOR BELT WANTED TO GET A BELT IN AGAINST GUESS WHO?  YES, THE PRESIDENT FOR HIS SO CALLED "COFFEE CUP SALUTE."   JOHN STEWART GAVE IT RIGHT BACK TO THEM IN TRIPLICATE.  WATCH AND ENJOY AND WHILE YOU ARE AT IT DO WHATEVER YOU MUST DO SO THAT THESE UTTER IMBECILIC, RACIST JERKS NEVER BE ALLOWED TO WALK UP THE CAPITOL STEPS OR THROUGH THE WHITE HOUSE DOOR!!!


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/26/1332511/-Jon-Stewart-slams-Fox-News-Hannity-on-Obama-s-coffee-cup-salute-critique#

Derek Jeter Delivers

I am a Red Sox fan from my toes to my brain but this man just captured me. Derek Jeter, as Brian Williams said on the evening news last night, will walk into the Hall of Fame. I haven't read about this game winning at bat last night, Jeter's last at Yankee Stadium after a storied career because I want to see it on TV today.

This veteran Yankee great of all greats in league with Ruth, Gehrig, and DiMaggio ends his baseball career in storybook fashion. Even I, with Red Sox in my blood, love him. In these days of sports and world corruption he shines like an angel -- a principled, man. I am crying just reading the first paragraph about the game last evening.  I am sure I will be a puddle of tears when I see it on TV this morning.

Good for you Derek Jeter for giving the nation your best and for giving it a much needed moment about which to cheer for a good and honorable man. What a breath of fresh air he is amid all the bickering, anger and violence of the nation and the world.

He never married because he felt he could not give a family and children the necessary attention his big career demanded.  Even that is the soul of a great man.  He wants to marry and have a family now and I suspect he will have no trouble finding one.  The woman who shares your life, Derek Jeter, will be a lucky one. Good luck to you. This Red Sox fan says thank you very much for delivering the wining run of your final game in the House that Ruth Built.  It is a symbolic winning moment of your entire winning life!!

EXACTLY what is needed!!

http://www.npr.org/2014/09/25/351277631/prominent-muslim-sheikh-issues-fatwa-against-isis-violence?sc=17&f=1001&utm_source=iosnewsapp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=app

Prominent Muslim Sheik Issues Fatwa Against ISIS Violence

Sheik Abdullah bin Bayyah is considered one of the most influential Muslims in the world. As a respected scholar, he has issued edicts to explain why groups...

npr.org|By Dina Temple-Raston

The ISIS Crisis -- A Decision

Listening to the president's persuasive eloquence at the UN, knowing that now we have Arab allies among others in the armed coalition, and knowing this president thinks things out scrupulously I am comfortable in my support for his decision to act against ISIS and its affiliates.

The reports today from smuggled out film of the kind of humanity (if one wants to call it humanity) that ISIS, et al is I am sickened by their nauseating brutality and the monstrosity of their faux religious ideological belief if you want to call it religious belief.  Islam surely is not about that.

Another French tourist hiking in Algeria was captured by the ISIS arm of death, promptly decapitated posting the decapitation along with other unspeakable behavior after the beheading on the Internet -- the fourth beheading barbarism in a short period of time.  The other atrocities ISIS & Co. commit are enumerable.  Who could allow these monsters born from the depths of a swamp to gain the foothold they are poised to gain if not stopped?

Covering up women Taliban style is not enough for ISIS.  Women in an ISIS world would be covered in black from head to toe with NOTHING -- and I do mean NOTHING not even an eyebrow -- showing.  The outrage at these outrageous sects leads me to conclude what the president has ordered is correct.  ISIS, Inc. cannot be allowed to commit Medieval madness in the extreme.

I answered my question.  Whom do I trust?  I trust this president and the US military with Arab and other support in its attempts to rid the world of this savage and rapacious scourge no matter how long it takes. 

We can ask nothing more of our gigantic power and expect nothing less.  The US military is the only thing that stands between you and a new Dark Age!

 We naturally need to elect Democrats across the nation so the brilliance of this president can be enhanced over the next two years.  Think about what could be done and the legacy he would leave.  SIGN UP DEMOCRATS ACROSS THE NATION AND BRING THEM TO THE POLLS NO MATTER WHAT THE REPUBLICAN OBSTRUCTIONIST BRUTALITY DOES TO PREVENT IT.  DO NOT LET THEM.  OVERTHROW THROUGH OUR EXAMPLE OF THE ELECTORAL PROCESS THIS REPUBLICAN NIGHTMARE AND LET THE PRESIDENT LEAD FOR THE BETTERMENT OF US, THE 98%!

Who Do You Trust?

There was a game show hosted by Johnny Carson in the early sixties called "Who Do You Trust?" (Should have been whom but I digress.)  In our time as a rationale for war who you trust is not a game show. 

I do not like war as it tends to kill lots of human beings many innocent and so I was initially against an air strike within Syria. I am still troubled by it not because the bestial behavior of ISIS, a brutally warped monstrosity, does not warrant elimination but because I simply do not know who is telling me the truth within the maze of anarchistic and religious conflict in the explosive Middle East of which this nation has been an integral and in 2002 an offending part.  Is ISIS an existential threat to the west?  Truly, is it?

The lies spun for war in this nation have been many.  I will not enumerate them now but they surely include Bush's uber lie of WMD in Iraq creating the current never-ending explosions in that neck of the woods. Some say our historical memory is short and filled with historical fluff told by the winners.

THIS time the rationales for Fear, Inc, are ISIS, ISIL and the Khorasan Group (sounds like an insurance company.)  The war may and perhaps will, as the president said, go on indefinitely.  The true dilemma is whom can I trust?

Our commander-in-chief has a brain and is surprisingly this time finding allied support from a variety of Arab states who each have their own agenda.  The words of war protestors "no more war" are like dust in the wind.  They disappear into the cacophonous sound of the media stratosphere. The media talking heads blather on with few complex points made in the space of five minutes experts are given for each topic.  Can they help it if our McDonald's nation wants news in the space of time it takes to cook a hamburger and has no patience for complexity?  If points are made by "experts" the experts often get paid handsomely as mouthpieces for one defense industry or another which is not transparent. 

Who can I trust?  I suspect I will never know so, yet again, I acquiesce to war.  In that neck of the chaotic woods filled with many who hate this nation rightfully or wrongfully can one take the chance that this president is wrong or worse lying? 

Whether the nations of the Middle East survive and build democratic states is of no concern to me.  BUT what is of concern to me is that this nation not suffer another attack and with it the possibility of nuclear peril. 

At least for now (I reserve the right to change my opinion) I will take the words of our president as truth and support him because our very lives and this nation's existence depend upon his not lying to us. 

Whom do I trust?  I still do not really know do you?

A Beautiful Quote

I have completed viewing two episodes of another Ken Burns Masterpiece -- "The Roosevelts: An Intimate History."  Teddy Roosevelt the early 20th century president has been the focus.

There are some great men and women who drop by our home for a visit, knock on the door and, while not perfect men or women, do some perfect things which help us all.  Teddy Roosevelt, I believe, was such a man -- a rough rider, a bull moose who had a violence in temperament to be sure but also possessed a softness of soul. 

He spoke the following words I thought to share because they are so poetically beautiful and profound in context.  They encapsulate a part of who he was:

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic" delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910

My Letter/Call to the Secret Service

I am UTTERLY APPALLED, angry and completely incredulous about the rancid Secret Service security breach of the presidential residence and I made my feelings known by calling the Secret Service which is exactly what Americans should do if they have strong feelings about something.  Do NOT keep it quiet make your voices heard.  I am sickened by this failure of the Secret Service to guard OUR  president's residence. 

This president has received more angry threats, more opposition, more Congressional Republican intransigence, more Fox News lies and bile than any president in US history.  There are those evil forces in this nation especially Republican and Tea Bag forces that want this president to fail WE MUST NOT LET THESE UGLY FORCES WIN.  We must step up to the plate and tell the Secrete Service in no uncertain terms that THEY CANNOT FAIL not even once to protect the president.

Why was the door to his residence not locked?  Why was this insane man with a knife even allowed on the grounds of the White House?  I give up my rights to the People's House when the president's security is at risk.  HE COMES FIRST, HIS SECURITY COMES FIRST and the SECURITY OF HIS FAMILY comes first. 

Secret Service GET YOUR organization in ORDER.  This is serous business and the lives of many people here and around the world are at stake. Revamp your processes.  I do not care what you do but PROTECT THIS PRESIDENT 100% and DO NOT FAIL!  Shame on you.  I am stunned and sickened by this lack of security.  GET YOUR ACT IN ORDER and do your job!

WHY YET AGAIN REPUBLICAN CONTROL OF ANYTHING IS OUT OF THE QUESTION.  GET DEMOCRATS REGISTERED AND TO THE POLLS ON NOVEMBER 4, 2014!

Democracy Now interview--Naomi Klein a must see

EXCELLENT interview by Amy Goodman (Democracy Now) of Naomi Klein.  You do not have to take my word that Naomi Klein is brilliant and spot on correct with respect our climate change catastrophe.  See the interview of her below and a link to her book "This Changes Everything Capitalism v. The Climate" and .... then ACT!

here or http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2014/9/18/naomi_klein_on_motherhood_geoengineering_climate

Her book "This Changes Everything Capitalism Vs. The Climate" is at the link below or here.


http://www.naomiklein.org/main

The Roosevelts--An Intimate History

ANOTHER REASON TO GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE.  KEEP FDR ALIVE. THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS THE ONLY VEHICLE FOR THAT.  SIGN UP TO VOTE ALL MINORITIES, AFRICAN AMERICANS, HISPANICS, WOMEN, THE YOUNG, THE DISABLED, THE ELDERLY AND ALL THOSE YEARNING FOR JUSTICE.  VOTE WHETHER REPUBLICANS TRY TO OBSTRUCT YOU FROM ENJOYING YOUR BASIC FREEDOM OR NOT--THE RIGHT TO VOTE.  PASS THIS AROUND TO ANY YOU CHOOSE!

"The Roosevelts--An Intimate History" is FABULOUS PBS programming by Ken Burns.  Again and again Ken Burns staggers me with his brilliant documentarian efforts from "Baseball" to "The Civil War" and to now to "The Roosevelts--An Intimate History." How much genius can exist in one man?   (See links to info below.)

I ignore my boycott of certain PBS programming which I see may not be influenced by the Koch Brothers. I continue to boycott PBS by not contributing money and not viewing that which I know is influenced by Koch's, in my view, hostile takeover of PBS and NOT polluted by Koch billionaire right wing extremist money. I'm waiting for PBS to air "Citizen Koch" which, of course, was squelched.  Maybe then I will rethink my stand.

Thank you, Ken Burns, for this masterpiece about a family I adore. I make no secrete of loving, especially, FDR. I went to Hyde Park to see his home and his presidential library.  I saw FDR's, Eleanor's and their dog Fala's graves.  I stood there and cried for a nation that once was on a trajectory for helping the 98% but has morphed now into an ugly Republican oligarchic takeover by the 1% richest. Even Teddy Roosevelt, a Republican, wanted a more egalitarian nation and his trust busting emanated from that much to the chagrin of his own Patrician class.

How I long for the leadership of the Roosevelt era. The social conditions were nasty but the leadership reached Olympian Heights. My FDR, whom I never knew except through my parents' eyes, I love him even now. May someone come along as great as he to save our nation from the oligarchic obstructionist Republican reign of terror nightmare of division it is. I keep looking for that leader but do not see him/her ... yet!

See link here or http://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-roosevelts

Can't we all just get along?

It is hard in today's Dickensian-like hard times to find some levity.  The only metaphor for our times I could think of was the wicked witch in the Wizard of Oz who, when dying as water was splashed on her, said "I'm melting.  I'm melting."  And the world is in fact global climate change melting.

Beyond that sad fact if one looks at a map there is conflict in countries seemingly everywhere.  I have never experienced in my lifetime an entire world at war until a reasonable facsimile of it seems to exist now.  My list does not even mention the soon-to-be-vote of Scottish secession and maybe even a revolt in Spain.

"What a world, what a world" said the wicked witch as she was melting in the Land of Oz.  What a world, indeed!

Can't we all just get along?  Did Oz's Dorothy or Glenda the Good Witch say that?  No, I think I did!

Thanks to "Wars in the World" here or at the link below are the hotspots:

It lists the following plus other in depth enumerations which I will not, of course, include:

By continent: 

Africa

Hot Spots: Central African Republic (civil war), Democratic Republic of Congo (war against rebel groups), Egypt (popular uprising against Government), Mali (war against tuareg and Islamic militants), Nigeria (war against Islamic militants), Somalia (war against Islamic militants), Sudan (war against rebel groups), South Sudan (civil war)

ASIA

Afghanistan (war against Islamic militants), Burma-Myanmar (war against rebel groups), Pakistan (war against Islamic militants), Philippines (war against Islamic militants), Thailand (coup d’etat by army May 2014)

EUROPE

Chechnya (war against Islamic militants), Dagestan (war against Islamic militants), Ukraine (Secession of self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic)

MIDDLE EAST MAYHEM

Hot Spots: Iraq (war against Islamic State Islamic militants), Israel (war in Gaza Strip), Syria (civil war), Yemen (war against and between Islamic militants) and Somalia.

Not to be forgotten:  The US led coalition to bomb ISIS/ISIL in Iraq and Syria -- GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!  And then what?

 AMERICAS

(5 Countries and 25 between drug cartels, militias-guerrillas, separatist groups and anarchic groups involved)

Hot Spots: Colombia (war against rebel groups), Mexico (war against narcotraffic groups)

How important is a vote for Democrats?   VERY.  Republicans never met a war they did not love or an issue of war fear it did not want to promote!  GET OUT THE DEMOCRATIC VOTE in November 4, 2014 STOP REPUBLICON OBSTRUCTIONISM TO OUR BASIC DEMOCRATIC  RIGHT -- THE RIGHT TO VOTE!!!

http://www.warsintheworld.com/?page=static1258254223