Right-wing Violence Rises

In the research paper "A comparison of political violence by left-wing, right-wing, and Islamist extremists in the United States and the world" by Katarzyna Jasko et.al. the authors state "we find that radical acts perpetrated by individuals associated with left-wing causes are less likely to be violent. In the United States, we find no difference between the level of violence perpetrated by right-wing and Islamist extremists." They then go on to show the data that proves their assertion. You may often here conservatives especially Fox News personalities, Breirbart, and others claim that leftists are the source of most violence but they never show you any evidence to back up their claims. The General Accountability Office reports that "Of the 85 violent extremist incidents that resulted in death since September 12, 2001, far right wing violent extremist groups were responsible for 62 (73 percent) while radical Islamist violent extremists were responsible for 23 (27 percent).”

That's important because a new tactic has been spreading across the country over the last several months, you might have heard about the 40,000-plus North Carolinians who were without electricity a week or so ago because someone broke into power sub-stations and shot up critical equipment causing localized blackouts. That's a tactic that right wing extremist groups on the internet have been talking about a lot lately going so far as to offer recommendations on how to do the most damage complete with photos of the equipment to look for and how to best damage it. The FBI is still investigation the attack so we can't know for sure that this particular instance was due to neo-Nazi perpetrators but it sure matches their self-published plans closely according to Rita Katz, founder and executive director of the SITE Intelligence Group, who told Newsweek that the Moore County attack is consistent with recent online neo-Nazi messaging. "The sabotage against the North Carolina substation aligns perfectly with directives and methods seen in accelerationist neo-Nazi communities," Katz said. "If this was indeed a far-right terrorist attack, my worry is that it will serve as a proof of concept for other far-right extremists.”

Just a few weeks before the North Carolina incidents there were at least six different attacks on power substations were reported to the FBI in Washington and Oregon. In recent months there have been at least half a dozen “substation intrusion events” though none involved vandalism by gunfire. Instead, the Florida intrusions involved people manually turning off the power substations by tripping switches. Most of these incidents resulted in brief outages that were quickly restored. What's really frightening about the Florida attacks is that it shows the involvement of people who know how the equipment works.

In January, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) warned that American extremists have begun exhibiting a worrisome interest in attacking the power grid as a means of disrupting the country. Far-right domestic extremists “have developed credible, specific plans to attack electricity infrastructure since at least 2020, identifying the electric grid as a particularly attractive target given its interdependency with other infrastructure sectors,” according to the DHS report.

It’s unfortunate that unlike Presidents George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan who denounced racist figures like Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke when they tried to enter mainstream politics Donald Trump uses their rhetoric. If today’s Republican leaders were really patriots they would speak out, like their predecessors in opposition to the hateful messages that inspire such attacks. We know what it means that they don’t.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 14, 2022

Republicans Weak

While thousands of high school girls in Iran lead nationwide protests risking arrest or death in a fight for freedom from the oppression of a government by religious leaders, Russian men either accept being conscripted into a war of conquest with Ukraine or run away seeking asylum in other countries including the United States.

Protests began in Tehran September 16 as a reaction to the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by the Guidance Patrol for wearing an "improper" hijab in violation of Iran's mandatory hijab law. Human rights group HRANA said that as of Friday 469 protesters had been killed, including 64 children, some as young as 9 years old. It said 61 government security forces had also been killed. More than 18,000 protesters are believed to have been arrested.

Russia invaded Ukraine in March and took control of vast sections of the country in weeks but failed to capture the capitol, Kyiv. Since then Ukrainian defenders with the aid of weapons provided by NATO countries including the United States have thrown Russian troops out of much of their country. Most recently Russian forces withdrew from Kherson, the only regional capitol, they’d managed to capture. Russian troops have suffered losses in the tens of thousands. While there have been some protests in Russia they’ve been quashed by local security forces.

Russian men apparently aren’t nearly as brave as Iranian teenage girls.

It was just a year ago that Senator Ted Cruz claimed that Russia’s manly army, in which same sex relationships are illegal, was a model that our armed forces should emulate. Now, those same manly men docilely accept being conscripted and thrown into the meat grinder that the attempt to conquer Ukraine has become; knowing they’ll receive no training, no winter coats or boots, and 50 year old weapons. Cruz claimed that our “woke” armed forces weren’t as effective as they could be because we have learned to accept LGBTQ service members.  Instead, it is the “woke” Ukrainian military which has thrown back the Russian aggressors and continues the fight to free their countrymen.

In 1995 George W. Bush said about his meeting with Vladimir Putin; “I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. I was able to get a sense of his soul.” Earlier this year Donald Trump spoke to a crowd at a fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago about Putin’s invasion; “I’d say that’s pretty smart. He’s taking over a country, really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people, and just walking right in. I mean, he’s taking over a country for two dollars’ worth of sanctions.”

Recent polls now show that 48% of Republicans think the United States is spending too much on weapons and support for Ukraine. Senator elect J. D. Vance of Ohio said earlier this year; “I gotta be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other.” Trump’s former Chief Strategist Steve Bannon said; “Every member of Conservative Inc. that backs this Ukraine war is a simp.” Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green just weeks ago said that; “Under Republicans, not another penny will go to Ukraine.”

What is it with Republicans praising authoritarian leaders like Putin? Why are they unwilling to assist those who are trying to defend their homes, their freedom, their democracy?

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 7, 2022

Texas Legislature 2023

We now know most of the results of the November 8 election and the story it tells is that Texas Republicans are very good at gerrymandering districts for partisan advantage. Their highly refined map drawing allowed them to pick up one seat in the state house, one seat in the state senate, and two congressional seats even though the statewide partisan vote split is approximately the same as it was in 2018. It’s amazing how well you can stick it to the other side when you control the rules of the game.

The state legislature will begin the 2023 session in just 7 weeks and they’ll have less than 5 months to pass a budget and get the rest of the people’s business done for the next two years. Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar has stated that record-high tax revenues over the last year will give Texas lawmakers an extra $27 billion to spend in the 2023 legislative session. Let’s see if our legislators and governor will allocate significant additional funds to public education where it is sorely needed or if they spend foolishly on fake border security as Greg Abbott did when he re-allocated funds from other important state responsibilities to continue and expand the National Guard presence on our southern border.

There are numerous other issues that the legislature really should address including action on the Texas power grid which is still in danger of failing when it is needed most at least in part because the model that utilities are required to use to determine whether or not they are prepared for extreme weather events doesn’t include the conditions we experienced in February 2021. Texas electricity users will be paying increased utility bills for a decade just to cover the outrageous rates that generators were able to charge for less than a week. The extra you’re paying on your bill doesn’t go toward improvements to prevent the same disaster in 2023 or further in the future.

It is way past time for Texas to make at least medical marijuana legal, the pathetic potency of the material legal in the state currently is little more than a placebo. There are clearly documented studies showing the value of marijuana for pain relief, something my wife would really benefit from. Presently she is using prescribed opioids which of course have numerous bad side effects including addiction and gastro-paresis, a condition in which the intestines don’t pump food and waste properly. The treatment for gastro-paresis is another drug which isn’t covered by many insurance plans and costs about $1000 a month so it isn’t really affordable at all. When we were out of state she was able to use medically approved marijuana edibles that relieved her pain and allowed her to function better than the drugs available here in Texas.

If the Republican leadership took a look at how successful decriminalizing recreational marijuana has been in states like Colorado where the sales taxes from it have been used to augment public school funding they might shift their perspective. I don’t really expect that to happen any time soon as it would take away one of the ways that Republicans generate fear in voters.

Various groups have been lobbying for changes to state marijuana law for years now and all we can hope is that our legislators will begin to see the light in 2023.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 23, 2022

Choose Wisely - Vote Democrat

Republican leaders, including Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, have been calling for violence against Democrats for several years and now that a Republican supporter has invaded Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home and beaten her husband with a hammer former President Trump and many of those he has endorsed have remained silent instead of calling for an end to political violence.

Faux New, I mean Fox News, has spent the last couple of months making spurious claims about crime in America but considering they’ve been using the FBI statistics from 2020, even if what they say is true that happened under Trump so if a president is to be blamed then blame him.

Let’s talk about objective reality, something Republican candidates don’t do much of because it doesn’t make them look good. Last week saw the release of the most recent economic statistics which show that the U.S. GDP grew at a +2.6% pace in the third quarter of this year, that’s even better than expected. Especially when you consider that Republican doomsayers have been arguing for months that the US economy is in a recession and they’ve been rooting for a downturn.

Our economy has created 10 million jobs, unemployment is at a 50 year low, and U.S. manufacturing is booming. The report also shows that in the third quarter, Americans' incomes were up and the inflation rate came down. Gas prices are falling – down $1.26 since the summer, and down over the last three weeks. The most common price at gas stations in Texas today is $3.19 a gallon. Last week I paid $2.99 a gallon.

Much of the rising cost of food is due to the current high cost of grain which is in turn caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine one of the world’s major wheat producers. The same holds true for gas prices to a large extent so if you want to blame someone blame Vladimir Putin.

Democrats in Congress and the Biden-Harris Administration earlier this year passed laws that will bring down prescription drug prices especially for those on Medicare starting next year.

Congressional Republicans have a very different agenda – they’re planning to hold the archaic federal debt limit hostage against cutting Social Security and Medicare knowing that holding up the legislation will shut down the federal government. Putting those federal employees and all those who support them out of work will cost the economy tens of billions of dollars just like it did the last time they pulled this stunt. They plan to do it so they cut taxes for the wealthiest Americans and large corporations.

The Republican’s failed economic vision is not the way to give families more breathing room and grow our economy so working families can get ahead. It’s a road map for increased poverty and shorter life spans. We know from the bitter experience of the Reagan administration that “trickle down” economics only benefits the wealthy few. Democrats see and are working toward an economy that benefits everyone. Republicans can’t conceive of an economy like that so they work toward one that benefits they’re wealthy benefactors and themselves.

When you vote, notice I didn’t say if you vote, choose wisely and vote for Democrats because they have a plan to move the country forward with peace, equity, and compassion for all of us.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 2, 2022

Democrats The Right Choice

There’s still time to conservative leaning independent voters to come to their senses and reject the extremism that has taken over the Republican Party both nationally and here in Texas. There are a few things that they should be reminded of when deciding on whom to vote for this election.

In May, 68 Republican members of the House and Senate voted against military aid to Ukraine. A week ago House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy made it clear that if the Republican Party takes power after the election; Ukraine will receive less support from the United States as it tries to defend itself and re-capture territory taken during Vladimir Putin's unprovoked invasion. At a recent Harvard Kennedy Center even Republican Representative Liz Cheney ripped into McCarthy for signaling support for slashing aid to Ukraine and former vice president Mike Pence called out GOP “Putin apologists” who have sympathized with Russia even as it invades a sovereign nation.

Can you imagine how different Europe and the U.S. would be today Franklin Roosevelt had been prevented from sending weapons, ammunition, and ships to the Allies while Hitler was invading country after country? If Putin isn’t stopped in Ukraine, which country will be next? How would the citizens and leaders of any other nation continue to consider the U.S. to be the leader of the free world?

Leading Republicans, including Representative Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), have stated that next year’s deadline to raise or suspend the debt ceiling is a point of leverage they'll use to cut Social Security and Medicare if their party can win control of the House in the November midterm elections. The debt ceiling is an artificial limit on the government’s ability to borrow money. That may not sound like a big deal or it might sound like a good idea until you realize that in reality it just limits the ability to pay for services and products that have already been delivered. It’s like ordering pizza delivered then when the driver arrives you take the pizza into the house and start eating it then tell the driver your spouse won’t let you use the credit card to pay for it.

The United States used to have the highest credit rating in the world because unlike other nations we always stood behind our debts. That credit rating has been damaged repeatedly over the last decade by Republican obstruction when it comes to raising the debt ceiling. You may remember when the federal government was shut down for 16 days in 2013. Or you might remember the 2018 shutdown that lasted 35 days which was caused by Donald Trump being unwilling to sign the appropriations bill that didn’t fund his useless border wall even though Senate Republicans passed the bill unanimously. Some of my customers were affected because their businesses operate on federal property, some of my neighbors were left without paychecks and had difficulty making mortgage payments.

If House Republicans take control of congress and get their way anyone on Social Security or Medicare and those who will become eligible in the next few years will suffer reduced income and higher medical bills. In contrast Democrats have raised Social Security benefits almost 9% this year to cover inflation.

So I have to ask, which party really cares about the economy? Which party cares about the health and welfare of our senior citizens? Which party truly supports in national security? Only Democrats can be trusted to address those concerns at this time.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 26, 2022

Biden Right on Marijuana Policy

President Joe Biden has finally taken initial steps to correcting both an injustice and bad health policy by instructing the Department of Justice to begin the process to issue full and unconditional pardons for citizens and legal residents with a federal conviction for simple possession of marijuana. This pardon will help thousands with prior convictions seeking housing, employment, benefits, and educational opportunities who are currently ineligible based on federal statutory or regulatory bars on individuals with prior drug convictions. The House passed a bill in 2020 that would have legalized and tax marijuana but the Senate never voted on it.

The President has asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to begin the administrative process of reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. Marijuana is currently a Schedule I drug, treated the same as heroin and LSD and more strictly than fentanyl and methamphetamine – the drugs driving our overdose epidemic. Changing how marijuana is scheduled would advance research and facilitate the appropriate medical use of marijuana.

Until 1916 marijuana was legal in all U.S. states, by 1931 29 states had outlawed it, then came the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 which outlawed it nationally over objections from the American Medical Association regarding medical usage. Most historians familiar with the topic agree that the scare tactics used to encourage making possession and use illegal even for well documented medical purposes were just cover for racism against Mexican and Black men who were the primary recreational users.  One way to know the laws and their enforcement are racist is that white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, a disproportionate number of people arrested and convicted are Black and brown. According to historian Eric Schlosser’s article in The Atlantic “Police officers in Texas claimed that marijuana incited violent crimes, aroused a ‘lust for blood,’ and gave its users ‘superhuman strength’.” Apparently police aren’t any better witnesses than civilians as anybody who has been around a marijuana user will disagree with those characterizations. Lust for food maybe, but there’s much more evidence of alcohol fueled violence.

Laws and enforcement tightened further over the next three decades until middle and upper class whites started getting arrested at which point most states backed off due to political pressure.  Then in 1976 a parent's movement against marijuana began affecting public attitudes which lead to the 1980s War on Drugs. Mandatory sentences were re-enacted by President Reagan including the "three strikes you're out" policy, requiring life sentences for repeat drug offenders. The failed War on Drugs has persisted ever since.

I am particularly interested in the use of marijuana for treating chronic pain as my wife suffers from it and has been prescribed opiates like morphine and fentanyl which can both be highly addictive unlike marijuana.

President Biden has urge all Governors to follow his lead and issue pardons for state marijuana possession offenses. Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the simple possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either. Gov. Abbott’s press office responded that he no intention of following Biden’s lead. Abbott’s Democratic opponent, Beto O’Rourke, on the other hand says he’ll work to legalize marijuana in Texas and expunge the record of those convicted of possession.

Social justice, new treatments for pain and other ailments, and better use of criminal justice resources, all from one change in policy. I’m voting for Beto O’Rourke for Governor of Texas and I hope you will too.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 12, 2022

Fascists Have Come to Cibolo

I’ve known for years that Republicans had lost sight of the principles on which this nation was founded but it was driven home Saturday as I was leaving my neighborhood to get the latest COVID-19 booster and flu shots. Driving toward the exit of the neighborhood I came across an older white man in a red t-shirt standing in the median holding a sign that said “Purge Democrat Voters…”. I couldn’t catch the rest at 25 mph in the smaller typeface but just what I could read said all it needs to say.

I’m among the last of the baby boomers, the children of the “Greatest Generation”, those who fought and bled in World War II. My dad was a private in the Army Air Corps, two uncles were in combat in Europe during the Battle of the Bulge, another served in the Navy in the Pacific supporting General Douglas MacArthur’s “Island Hopping” campaign. I can’t help but feel that the authoritarian direction of so many Republican candidates and voters is a direct insult to the men and women like my father and uncles who fought so bravely against fascists like Mussolini, Tojo, and Hitler. I had to restrain myself from stopping the car and getting out to confront the sorry excuse for an American.

The right to vote for our elected representatives is the most sacred right of every citizen of this nation upon reaching the age of 18. The very idea that this man and so many like him believe it is right and proper to disenfranchise someone with whom they disagree is beyond the pale.

These are the same people who rant about the constitution and yet either don’t seem to have read it or simply don’t understand it. They are the same people who will look you straight in the face and tell you that if it isn’t in the constitution then the federal government can’t do it while at the same time claiming that the United States is a Christian nation when the constitution says nothing of the sort and in fact says in Article VI: “…no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

One of their long running non-sense claims that has been pushed to the fore once again is the notion that the United States is “a republic, not a democracy”. That’s like a child saying that they're holding chocolate ice cream, not ice cream. Encyclopedia Britannica defines republic as follows: form of government in which a state is ruled by representatives of the citizen body. Modern republics are founded on the idea that sovereignty rests with the people, though who is included and excluded from the category of the people has varied across history. Because citizens do not govern the state themselves but through representatives, republics may be distinguished from direct democracy, though modern representative democracies are by and large republics. A republic is a flavor of democracy, a representative democracy, rather than a direct democracy where everyone votes on every issue of government. Not every nation holds true to the name they of their nation such as the USSR which was the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics; just like calling something a rose doesn’t make it smell sweet.

It’s important the people like the guy standing in the median with his frightening sign are overwhelmed at the polls so that the authoritarians that the Republican party has been raising into leadership don’t get their way. Just you voting is not enough, bring your family, bring your friends too.

 Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 5, 2022