Border Wall Just a Racist Symbol

Democrats in Congress and across America want comprehensive immigration reform, Donald Trump wants to $15 to $25 billion dollars to fulfill a campaign promise that he would build a big wall. His wall is nothing more than a physical symbol of his anti-immigrant rantings which cater to his many Confederate and Nazi flag waving, racist supporters.

China built its own Great Wall and it failed to keep out the Mongols. Roman troops built Hadrian’s Wall across Britain to keep out the Picts, it also failed. Israel has a wall but its effectiveness is questionable due to the numerous mortar and missile strikes fired from the other side.

Walls and fences are effective in prisons not because they alone keep prisoners in but because they are delayed long enough for guards to catch up to them. Trump’s wall is nothing if not closely monitored and if Border Patrol agents aren’t quickly dispatched when someone is crossing. So if we’re going to adequately monitor and staff a wall in order to make it effective why not just do the more cost efficient thing and just the cameras then increase monitoring and staffing? The answer is that a cubicle farm staffed with people watching dozens of remote video monitors isn’t the symbol Trump and his supporters’ desire.

There’s another reason Trump’s wall would be ineffective, it’s because at least 40% of undocumented immigrants crossed our border perfectly legally but then overstayed their visas. Nothing Trump has proposed addresses that problem. Trump also claims that his wall would stop drug smuggling but the facts are that the vast majority of drug smuggling comes on ships into our ports and once again he has no plan to solve that problem.

Instead of searching for and implementing real solutions to perceived problems Trump is attempting to force Congress to provide the funds for his wall without regard to the property rights of the landowners on the border which would lose their lands to the federal government through eminent domain or the environmental damage. Even though Trump said on national television that he alone would own a government shutdown over this issue he’s now desperately blaming Democrats.

If Trump really wanted to fix things instead of grand stand he could have sent a thousand immigration judges and interpreters to the southern border instead of 5,200 military troops. Trump’s supporters claim they have no problem with legal immigration they just want people to follow the rules and wait their turn. What they don’t tell you is that it can take 10 or more years under the current system and when people are fleeing violence, drought and hunger they can’t wait a decade. Those fleeing such life threatening conditions came to the border requesting asylum which is a lawful act under both U.S. and international law though you won’t hear that from Trump or his racist followers.

If all that’s not enough to tell you that the wall isn’t really about immigration then think about this, when Democrats suggest spending money on almost anything Trump and his congressional enablers demand to know how it’s going to be paid for but when House Republicans put $5.7 billion in border wall funding into the final appropriations bill of the year not a single one asked where how it would be paid for.

Published in the Seguin Gazette December 28, 2018

Judge's Ruling Indicator That Medicare For All Necessary

Well over one million Texans stand to lose their health insurance due to a federal court decision, here in Texas, striking down the Affordable Care Act in its entirety a week ago today. The lawsuit was brought by the Attorneys General of 18 Republican controlled states. Interestingly the suit was brought in the Northern District of Texas where U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor, a George W. Bush appointee, is the only active judge so it has the appearance of judge shopping. O’Connor held off on handing down the decision on this case for months as it was argued in his court in the Spring. Whether he did it for political reasons or not is hard to say but it sure seems odd that he waited until a month after elections were over before rendering the decision given that this issue would have been fodder for the O’Rourke and Cruz senate campaigns.

In addition to those losing health insurance they previously got through the Marketplace with subsidies there are others who will be affected by the ruling. By striking down the entire bill, limits on how much more older people can be charged for coverage compared to younger people are also eliminated so those of us 50 to 65 may find our health insurance premiums suddenly take a big jump. The ruling also eliminates the ban on annual and lifetime caps on how much your insurance will cover so if a member of your family comes down with cancer it will be possible for your insurer to stop paying for life saving medicine and treatment after paying $1 million. In addition the judge’s ruling means that children over 18 no longer are allowed to stay on their parents’ health insurance until age 26. The same ruling means that a host of preventive care services previously mandated to be provided with no co-pay are no longer required.

Then there are those like my wife who have Medicare Part D covering their prescription drugs; under the Affordable Care Act the donut hole which is the amount of out of pocket money spent on prescriptions was substantially reduced, if O’Connor’s decision stands she and others like her will go start spending thousands more for their medications. There are other less well known parts of the law such as the requirement for background checks on all nursing home staff that are also eliminated by striking down the law.

Many in the legal community were surprised by the ruling and believe it will be overturned since the Affordable Care Act has survived 70 other attacks including twice in the Supreme Court, especially since Congress just had an opportunity to repeal the law and instead chose to eliminate only the individual mandate to purchase insurance. If they’re right we’ll have dodged a bullet aimed squarely at those of us least able to afford the cost of recovering.

Regardless of whether or not Judge O’Connor’s decision is overturned it’s quite clear that there is still a long way to go to truly become the equitable society that this nation aspires to be. It’s past time for the United States to convert to a single payer system like that proposed in the Medicare for All bill supported by most Democrats including our own congressman, Vicente Gonzalez. Claims that Medicare for All is un-affordable are ridiculous given that nearly every other industrialized nation in the world has used such a system for decades.

This January Medicare for All should be part of the Democrats agenda in Washington. Look for a similar bill in the Texas legislature as well.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 21, 2018

Republican Conspiracy to Seize Power

Speaking one hundred years after the Republican Party ran its first presidential campaign, Dwight Eisenhower who worked to convert it into a modern party in the mid-20th century, encouraged party colleagues to develop “a certain kind of principle, or doctrine, or belief to fall back on” and warned that “If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.”

For decades Democrats and Republicans alike have used redistricting to build partisan advantage by designing districts that gave themselves outsized majorities in both federal and state legislatures. After the 2010 census Republicans used the latest computer software to turn their 2010 wave victory into “permanent” majorities all over the country. Now that even with the abuses of partisan redistricting they’re beginning to lose their control they’ve begun taking other power grabbing measures.

Today in Wisconsin and Michigan Republican state legislators, many of whom lost re-election campaigns last month, are now passing legislation in lame duck sessions that will take power from the incoming governor, secretary of state, and attorney general – all democrats – and put it in the hands of the state legislature which will still be controlled by Republicans, albeit by narrow margins.
Within days of the election Wisconsin Republicans hurriedly drafted and passed a bill that blocks incoming Governor Tony Evers’s ability to change state welfare policy and withdraw from a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act — two things he campaigned on. It also limits the state’s early voting period, a move that would make it harder for Democrats to win future elections. Other suddenly proposed legislation would change the date of Wisconsin’s 2020 presidential primary in what is an obvious attempt to lower turnout for a separate state-supreme-court election scheduled for the same day.

In Michigan Republicans are working to shift the power to intervene in litigation from the governor’s and attorney general’s offices to the legislature, where Republicans maintain a majority. Democrat Gretchen Whitmer captured the governorship last month after Republican Rick Snyder ran the state for two terms. Democrats also won the offices of attorney general and secretary of state, and another lame-duck GOP proposal would move campaign-finance authority from the secretary of state to a six-person bipartisan commission.

Both Wisconsin and Michigan are following the playbook written by North Carolina Republicans after their 2016 loss of the governorship. Late in December 2016 North Carolina’s Republican Governor Pat McCrory called a special session and within 48 hours bills were passed that limited the incoming governor Roy Cooper’s ability to make key cabinet appointments without their approval, drastically cut the size of Cooper’s administration, and changed the Board of Elections so that Republicans would control it in election years. They also ensured lawsuits had to first go through the Republican-controlled appeals court, before the Democratic-majority state Supreme Court. Since some of those bills were fully fleshed out 40 page documents upon submission this was an organized ambush.

This is not how a healthy democracy works, lame duck sessions should be used to complete work on pending legislation and tie up loose ends. Unfortunately Dwight Eisenhower’s concerns regarding lack of principle have proven correct as Republicans around the country are indeed conspiring to seize power.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 14, 2018

Rep. Gonzalez Supports Wall Street Over Constituents

Last week I wrote about our congressman, Vicente Gonzalez, co-sponsoring legislation that empowers debt collection attorneys to our detriment. Just a day or two later I saw him promoting his successful efforts to encourage the US Department of Agriculture to load $50 million to the San Miguel Electric Co-op so it can continue providing electricity to 40 or so South Texas counties with 220,000 customers. That sounded like something to be proud of until I learned that it will keep one of the dirtiest coal burning plants in the country operating for another 19 years so that investors don’t lose $489 million if it is forced to shut down before the loans are paid off.

The reality then is that rather than let the “market” work and wealthy investors lose money he’s proud of using our tax dollars to bail them out while polluting our air with both toxins and climate damaging greenhouse gases. This particular plant is so dirty and inefficient because it burns lignite coal, a fuel so inefficient that operators build plants on top of coal deposits as it is too expensive to haul it by train.

The volume of carbon dioxide put out by the San Miguel plant is much higher per kilowatt of electricity generated than almost any other type of generator. That excess carbon dioxide just hastens the very climate change that is already damaging the residents of the district. Both Seguin and McAllen where the bulk of the district’s population resides have experienced several devastating floods in recent years and such floods are likely to become both more frequent and more damaging as the climate heats up.

The National Climate Assessment (NCA) was released by the federal government the Friday after Thanksgiving, it assesses the science of climate change and variability and its impacts across the United States. Among its findings were that “In the absence of significant global mitigation action and regional adaptation efforts, rising temperatures, sea level rise, and changes in extreme events are expected to increasingly disrupt and damage critical infrastructure and property, labor productivity, and the vitality of our communities. Regional economies and industries that depend on natural resources and favorable climate conditions, such as agriculture, tourism, and fisheries, are vulnerable to the growing impacts of climate change. Rising temperatures are projected to reduce the efficiency of power generation while increasing energy demands, resulting in higher electricity costs. The impacts of climate change beyond our borders are expected to increasingly affect our trade and economy, including import and export prices and U.S. businesses with overseas operations and supply chains. “

Overall “…the continued warming that is projected to occur without substantial and sustained reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions is expected to cause substantial net damage to the U.S. economy throughout this century, especially in the absence of increased adaptation efforts. With continued growth in emissions at historic rates, annual losses in some economic sectors are projected to reach hundreds of billions of dollars by the end of the century—more than the current gross domestic product (GDP) of many U.S. states.”

I don’t know about you but I’m more than frustrated that the man we elected to represent us seems to be more interested in his Wall Street backers like Charles Schwab, Credit Suisse Securities, and UBS Americas Inc. just to name a few, than he is in the wellbeing of his constituents. If you feel the same way call his office and let him know. His Washington office number is 202-225-2531.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - December 7, 2018

We Deserve Better Democrats Than Gonzalez

It’s deeply disappointing to find that someone you voted for isn’t living up to their stated principles. Late last week I noticed a news article about a bill that if passed will make it legal for attorneys doing debt collecting to harass debtors once again. While that in itself is disturbing the fact that our congressman, Vicente Gonzalez, is the co-sponsor of the bill is even more so. The bill passed out of committee with a largely party line vote with Gonzalez being the only Democrat voting in favor.

The bill Gonzalez sponsored would prevent the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection (CFPB) from exercising supervision or enforcement authority over them and exempt debt collection attorneys from the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). H.R. 5082 will enable some debt collection law firms to engage in abusive and deceptive practices and get away with it.

Public interest attorneys like Carolyn E. Coffey, the Director of Economic Justice at Mobilization for Justice, and Claudia Wilner, Senior Attorney at the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, who wrote the article say they know that debt collection attorneys engage in some of the worst debt collection misconduct. Only the FDCPA and the CFPB keeps them even partially in check.

In an example they wrote about their organizations used the FDCPA to sue a debt collection law firm for obtaining hundreds of thousands of default judgments against unsuspecting people,  mostly low-income people of color, by filing false affidavits with the court. The debt collection attorneys used the fraudulently obtained judgments to freeze their victims’ bank accounts, garnish their wages, and coerce them into entering “voluntary” payment agreements. Our FDCPA lawsuit returned tens of millions of dollars to their clients as part of a settlement and resulted in reversing of 200,000 state court judgments.

In a 2016 report by Human Rights Watch, Rubber Stamp Justice: US Courts, Debt Buying Corporations, and the Poor, the authors documented widespread abuses by debt collection attorneys in courts across the country, including cases brought beyond the statute of limitations and hundreds of cases where people never received notice of the suits, all of which resulted in wrongful judgments, often against the wrong people.

Congressional District 15 here in Texas is one of the poorest in the nation and based on the propensity for debt collection attorneys who abuse the law to do so in low-income communities it is likely that we’ll be among those to suffer the most. I find it deeply disturbing that it is our elected representative working to open the door to abuses that were outlawed 30 years ago when Congress first added attorneys to the definition of debt collector in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. When Vicente Gonzalez met with voters in the district during the 2016 primary he claimed he would work for all the people here, his actions say something else entirely. Apparently Gonzalez made friends with the wrong kind of people at the New York office of his law practice.

It isn’t enough to elect more Democrats to Congress or the Texas legislature, we have to work to elect better Democrats too.

Blue Wave Really a Progressive Wave

My Republican neighbors are in denial about the “blue wave” that swept the country earlier this month which led to 38 and possibly 39 or 40 more Democrats in the House. Democrats lost four seats they held in the Senate but won two others previously held in by Republicans from Arizona and Nevada. Nationally turnout was the highest for a mid-term election since 1914 so no one can claim that low turnout caused the swing. In addition to the progress I wrote about two weeks ago made by Democrats in Texas; over 330 state legislative seats switched from Republican to Democratic hands. Democratic governors were elected to replace Republicans in seven states and six state legislatures switched from Republican to Democratic control. There were many county governments and other elected offices like Secretary of State, Secretary of Agriculture, and judgeships changing hands as well.

2019 will be a tremendous year for diversity in our federal legislature. At least 123 women will be in Congress next year, all but 19 are Democrats. The 116th Congress will have the highest percentage of women ever at 23%. The first two Native American women won seats in the House, Deb Haaland from New Mexico and Sharice Davids from Kansas. Religious diversity also increased as the first two Muslim women; Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar and Michigan’s Rashida Tlaib were elected to the House and a record 53 other Muslims won elections to state legislatures and local government bodies. New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the youngest member ever elected to the House.

Nine newly elected members with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and medicine are headed to the House of Representatives seven of them are Democrats; one Democrat won in the Senate.

Elected officials were not the only evidence of the change in the body politic as three Republican controlled states, Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah voted on propositions to take advantage of the Affordable Care Act provision enabling Medicaid expansion. Some of the states where Republican governors were replaced had denied Medicaid expansion and the Affordable Care Act was a campaign issue so their defeat was at least in part a repudiation of the Republican efforts to repeal it.

Three states voted to legalize marijuana, Utah and Missouri for medical treatment and Michigan for recreational use. Florida voted to restore voting rights to 1.4 million felons who have served their time. In New Mexico the newly elected Democratic legislature is already preparing to repeal the existing state law prohibiting abortion so that any action by the Supreme Court on the issue will have no effect there. Arkansas and Missouri both voted to increase the minimum wage, which will give raises to a combined total of 900,000 workers in the two states.

Automatic voter registration, which disproportionately enfranchises young people and people of color, passed in both Nevada and Michigan. In Michigan voters approved same-day voter registration and made it easier to request absentee ballots. Voters in Maryland passed a ballot measure to implement same-day voter registration by a wide margin.

Given all this it wasn’t just a “blue wave” it was a progressive wave and that’s actually more important in the long run.

Democratic Priorities in the 2019 Texas Legislature

Last week I wrote about how the election results changed the makeup of the state legislature and courts here in Texas. Here’s a look at what that change means to you and me in terms of over 400 pieces of legislation filed on opening day of pre-filing with the state legislature based on analysis by the Texas AFL-CIO.

There was more good than bad for workers in that first batch including a strong group of bills raising wages, strengthening pensions and other workplace benefits, expanding health care and improving access to higher education were filed as well as addressing sexual harassment.

First the bad, HB 222 by Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, would eliminate the ability of cities to enact earned paid sick leave ordinances. The ordinances, like those recently enacted in Austin and San Antonio, could provide hundreds of thousands of Texans the freedom to stay home when they are ill, are under challenge in court as well. Keep in mind that this issue is about more than benefitting employees since it actually protects other employees and customers from contact that could spread the disease further. Think about the restaurant worker who feels the need to work with the flu so they can pay the next month’s rent or put food on the table for their family.

SB 32 by Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, would establish the Texas Promise Grant Program to pay tuition and fees for Texas students whose annual household incomes are less than $150,000; SB 33 by Zaffirini specifically addresses two-year colleges.

HB 48 by Rep. Mary Gonzalez, D-El Paso, would create a publicly available database of employers who have been found to have committed wage theft. As it stands now business owners can get fined for stealing from their employees and then weeks later start it all over again with new employees who have little chance of finding out that the person hiring them is likely to steal from them. Should Rep. Gonzalez’s bill be passed into law there would be a website that prospective employees could check to see of a business makes a habit of stealing wages before it happens to them. Having such information widely available should also provide a deterrent to employers as such behavior will become widely known in the community and they’ll be shamed for it in addition to finding it harder to find good workers. In addition HB 83 by Rep. Romero raises penalties for repeated failure to pay wages and HB 106 by Rep. Eddie Rodriguez, D-Austin, would increase protections against employer retaliation when an employee files a claim for unpaid wages.

HB 56 by Rep. Armando Martinez, D-Weslaco, would provide for cost-of-living adjustments on pensions for retired teachers; SBs 92, 93 and 94 by Sen. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, would add a supplemental "13th payment" for retirees and otherwise shore up the Teacher Retirement System.

HB 133 by Rep. Terry Canales, would make it state law that tips are solely the property of tipped employees and therefore the practice that some restaurant and bar operators of claiming a percentage of tips for themselves would be outlawed.

Minimum wage is a big issue that several bills address, HB 194 by Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, would raise the state minimum wage to $15 an hour; HB 290 by Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, would raise the minimum to $10.10 an hour; SB 113 by Sen. Jose Menendez would set the wage at $10.10 an hour, as would SJR 5, his constitutional amendment proposal. SB 161 by Sen. Rodriguez would allow cities and counties to set local minimum wages.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 16, 2018

2018 Election Results Not Bad - Hint at Better 2020

Although nothing much changed in the makeup of Guadalupe County government Texas Republicans shouldn't get too cocky given that Beto O'Rourke lost by just 220,000 votes, the narrowest margin of any state-wide candidate in well over a decade. Overall turnout in this election was nearly twice what it was just four years ago and only 8% less than the 2016 presidential election turnout. O’Rourke got 200,000 votes more than Hillary Clinton did just two years ago while Ted Cruz got 400,000 fewer than Donald Trump.

Beto wasn't alone as Lt. Governor candidate Mike Collier, Attorney General candidate Justin Nelson and Agriculture Commissioner Kim Olson all performed nearly as well. While not every state-wide Democratic candidate performed to those standards it wasn’t just Beto O’Rourke pulling the train. Good candidates running strong campaigns got within striking difference in the mid-terms for the first time in 20 years.

Those aren't the only signs that Texas is changing, two incumbent Republican congressmen, Pete Sessions and John Culberson, lost their seats, and four others are only won by 5% or less. One of those is District 23 running from northwestern San Antonio nearly to El Paso, currently held by Will Hurd, at under 700 votes difference is so close that it may require a recount to confirm the winner.

In the state legislature 2 incumbent Republican state senators, John Huffines and Konni Burton, lost to Democrats along with a dozen Republican held state house members. Other signs that Texas is changing include a switch to a Democratic majority on the State Board of Education and four Courts of Appeal districts also flipped to Democratic majorities due to wins against 18 incumbent Republican judges.

Results like Tuesday’s suggest that the 2020 election will be even more hotly contested than was 2016 if for no other reason that it indicates that Texas could be in play in a presidential election instead of being a considered a guaranteed Republican stronghold. That means a lot more spending of time, money and other resources by both presidential candidates and probably more funds available to candidates from both parties in at least the additional for really close congressional races from this election. If you thought there were a lot of television and radio commercials, mailers, phone calls and text messages this election just wait until 2020.

It won’t just be federal races drawing more funding either as there are 11 more Republican House seats that were close enough to be considered in play in the next election. With the Democrats now holding 67 state House seats it will only take 9 more to for them to attain a majority and be able to choose the Speaker of the House who would set the House agenda. A Democratic House majority would also have a lot more to say about redistricting which will be a major issue to be addressed by the legislature when it then meets in 2021. The main goal of Democrats would be to prevent the outrageous gerrymandering that currently gives Republicans the huge advantages they have with the current maps. You know there’s something fishy when state-wide Democratic candidates received 45-48% of the vote and yet even with this year’s wins they only hold 13 of 36 congressional seats instead of the 16-18 a reasonably drawn map would likely provide.

All this means is that 2020 is likely to be an even more hotly contested election cycle in Texas than even 2018 and within months of today party volunteers will start working once again on registering new voters and identifying likely supporters all over again.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 9, 2018

Remind them their votes can change lives

At this point in the election cycle attempts by candidates to persuade people that they are the best choice are largely over and now their efforts are focused on persuading registered voters to take the time to go to the polls and mark their ballots. Volunteers are working full bore calling voters and knocking on their doors in the hope that they can turn out just a few more votes and that will be the difference between their preferred candidate winning and losing.

I’d be willing to bet that nearly everyone reading this column has either already voted or has plans to vote on a specific day and probably a specific time. As a citizen in a democratic republic in addition to your right and responsibility to vote you have a duty to encourage others to vote as well. Some folks need encouragement to make the effort, some more than others.

Here are a few reasons you can offer that might make them feel it is worth their effort:

Ask the prospective voter if they or someone they care about lacks access to healthcare because they can’t afford health insurance. If they do, then let them know that Democrats like gubernatorial candidate Lupe Valdez are all are fighting for increasing access to healthcare by expanding Medicaid. Mention that Republicans Governor Greg Abbott has the power to do so with the federal government paying for 90% of it and chooses to let Texans suffer and die instead. Remind them that their vote for Lupe Valdez can make that happen.

Ask a prospective voter if they believe that everyone who works a full time job deserves the dignity of being to live on their own without worrying where their next meal will come from. If they do, then let them know that Democrats like US Senate candidate Beto O’Rourke are fighting to raise the minimum wage to a living wage because no one who works 40 hours a week should live in poverty. Remind them that their vote for Beto O’Rourke can insure the dignity of every worker.

Ask a prospective voter if their children or grandchildren or nieces and nephews deserve a good quality education that will prepare them to provide for themselves and their future families. If they do, point out that Democrats like Texas House District 44 candidate John Rodgers is committed to protecting public education and fully funding public schools so that every child no matter where they live in Texas and no matter how much or how little their parents earn has the opportunity to get a high quality education. Remind them that their vote for John Rodgers can change lives.

What it all boils down to is that those who vote choose the way our government works and who it benefits. Anyone not voting cedes their right to have a voice and allows those who don’t respect the dignity of working Texans, don’t share the belief that every child deserves a high quality education, and only the well of and those with good employer based health insurance deserve medical care for themselves and their families will continue to set the direction of our state and the nation.

Be a leader, be an activist and offer to drive your family, friends and neighbors to the polls if that’s what it takes to get them to vote.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - November 2, 2018

Heed John Lewis

Civil rights hero, Congressman John Lewis, has taken to social media recently to encourage voters to use their right to vote. He tweeted “I have been beaten, my skull fractured, and arrested more than forty times so that each and every person has the right to register and vote. Friends of mine gave their lives. Do your part. Get out there and vote like you’ve never voted before.”

Congressman Lewis’ remarks are especially important this week when many Americans are going to the polls for early voting at the same time a right wing terrorist has mailed and hand delivered at least seven bombs to former president Obama, Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, progressive billionaire George Soros, and the New York offices of CNN. Hate from the right; like the white nationalist/Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia last year that ended in the death of Heather Heyer, has been on the rise since Barack Obama began his campaign for president in 2007. The current White House stoked that hate during his campaign and enough Americans in the certain states accepted his hateful message so that he managed to take office even though he received nearly 3 million fewer votes. Since his inauguration he has thrown more fuel in the fire and claimed that the bigots marching in Charlottesville were nice people.

By continuing to spout hateful language toward his opponents and those in the media not associated with Fox News and AM talk radio the popular vote loser in the White House has incited and given permission for his followers to act on his words by striking out at those with whom they disagree. No prior president of either party has pushed the envelope the way the man in the White House today has done. Even Reagan using dog whistles like his imaginary welfare queen remarks didn’t stoop to calling for violence.

In the face of attacks and calls for violence it is of the utmost importance that we all heed John Lewis’ call to vote. Even though they were subjected to violence from both police and civilian bigots Lewis, Rev. Martin Luther King, Dolores Huerta, Bayard Rustin, Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, and the many other activists forged a highly effective and non-violent path to achieve their voting rights and civil rights goals. Once their right to vote was established those pioneers were able to achieve and protect other civil rights for a time.

Over the last 30 years as the right has recognized the opportunity to rule by exploiting division amongst the electorate. One of the main fault lines exploited is race, others are generally religious biases like non-Christian faiths, a woman’s right to control her body, and non-traditional sexuality. Exploiting these fault lines requires generating fear, anger, and hate to move those who are susceptible to voting for those who claim to be protecting them. Of course the politicians who use these methods including the record setting liar in the White House aren’t really interested in or concerned about the issues surrounding race or religion. Their vociferous calls to protect white, Christian America are just tools to get access to the levers of power for the purposes of enriching themselves and their billionaire and corporate sponsors. The evidence for this is the single significant piece of legislation that the Republican controlled congress was able to pass was a giant tax break for those billionaire and corporate sponsors.

If you, your family, your friends, and your neighbors don’t vote, the hate mongers and their rich sponsors win. Don’t let them.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 26, 2018

Texas Candidates and Campaign Contributors

Most Americans agree that money in politics is a problem in that special interests all too often get their way in regard to the laws passed by Congress and state legislatures in spite of what’s good for the people. There is plenty of evidence to backup that position such as studies showing that the issues that the average voter cares about are given short shrift by our legislators while matters of interest to major corporations and billionaires get plenty of attention. We may disagree on the steps to reduce the influence of money in our political system but we generally agree that it’s a problem.

Reducing the influence of money in politics is an issue being taken on right now in two important races in Texas right now. In the US Senate race Beto O’Rourke has pledged not to take campaign donations from corporations and political action committees (PAC’s) his opponent has not. Beto O’Rourke has raised millions from thousands of individual donors making donations from as little as $3 to a few hundred dollars while Ted Cruz is getting most of his campaign donations from major corporations and the political action committees that they and their lobbyists have organized to channel their money into the campaigns that favor their interests. Who do you think is going to listen to your concerns and act accordingly once in office, the guy who spent all his time talking to billionaires and their lackeys begging for money or the guy who raised a record $38 million in three months from folks like you and me?

In the Texas House District 44 race right here in Guadalupe County John Rodgers has made a similar pledge and all his campaign donations have come from individuals in amounts from $27 to $150 aside from the few thousand dollars he personally put up. The incumbent, John Kuempel on the other hand has taken more than 95% of his campaign donations, tens of thousands of dollars from special interest PACs like: the Texas Trial Lawyers Association PAC, Merck & Company Employees Political Action Committee of Washington, D. C., Advance America Cash Advance Centers PAC from South Carolina, Eli Lilly and Company PAC (pharmaceuticals manufacturer) out of Indiana, and UPSPAC out of Georgia. Kuempel took in $10,000 just from the Texas Association of Realtors PAC and is sitting on over $600,000 cash on hand. You’ll notice that many of the examples aren’t even from here in Texas let alone Guadalupe County or Wilson County where the constituents of House District 44 live. All the campaign contribution information I’ve mentioned is available for your review from the Texas Ethics Commission website which is where I got it.

So again the question is who is more likely to listen to your concerns and act in your best interests the candidate taking money from out of state business interests or the one who accepts donations only from voters like you and me?

It’s clear to me that regardless of your feelings about hot button issues, the candidates who are going to work for the interests of the people are the ones who don’t give their ear to special interests who fund their campaigns and that means I’ll be voting for Beto O’Rourke and John Rodgers. I hope you will too.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 19, 2018

Who Is In Office Matters And So Does Your Voice

Three weeks ago I told you about the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies Act filed by Senator Bernie Sanders. Also known as the Stop Bezos Act it was written so that if passed it would require employers like Amazon and Walmart to pay taxes to offset the amount of federal assistance their full time employees collect due to the low wages they and similar employers pay. The federal assistance provided to employees effectively subsidizes highly profitable companies like Amazon and Walmart. This week Jeff Bezos the CEO of Amazon announced that the company has raised its minimum wage to $15 per hour and publicly thanked Sen. Sanders and thousands of activists for pushing his company to make that decision.

The news about Amazon raising wages to a livable level is timely since we’re just over two weeks away from the start of early voting and there are too many Texans especially in towns like Seguin who don’t vote especially in mid-term elections. If you’re a regular reader of this column you are probably known among your family and friends as politically knowledgeable and aware; not because you read this column but because you’re interested in the topic and this column among others in the Friday editorial section is an indicator of your interest. Studies show the fact that your family and friends respect your knowledge means on average you have more power to persuade 10 people to vote and who to vote for. That makes you much more effective than some stranger knocking on their door or calling them on the phone.
When someone you’re talking to about voting says voting doesn’t matter or all politicians are alike you can point to Sen. Sanders impact on the decision wage increase as evidence that not all politicians are alike. If the family member or friend you’re talking to says their vote doesn’t matter remind them that in 2017 a state legislature seat in Virginia was decided by a coin toss because the vote was tied. Or you can point to the 2010 race for Texas House District 48 in Austin which Donna Howard won by just 12 votes. Or Lisa Jackson’s 5 vote margin of victory in the race for Mayor of Cibolo in the 2013 election.

Amazon isn’t the only highly profitable company that needs to raise wages, Senator Sanders isn’t going to fix the country by himself even if he is elected president in 2020, and your vote alone isn’t likely to swing an election but if all of us work together to raise awareness and we each do our part to bring out those 10 voters we have influence with, we can make a difference.

Early voting starts Monday October 22 put that date on your calendar and get to the polls early, if you do you might save yourself a lot of candidate phone calls as they try to spend their limited time on people who haven’t voted yet. Remind those family members and friends to get to the polls early too.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 5, 2018

Kavanaugh Confirmation is Another #MeToo Moment

Reporting of sexual abuse by prominent members of society has been on the rise for quite a while having reached from the Catholic Church most recently in Pennsylvania, to Hollywood especially Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein, to the halls of Congress including Democrat Anthony Weiner and Texas Republicans Blake Farenthold and Joe Barton. The man in the White House has been repeatedly accused of sexual assaults and on occasion has paid substantial out of court settlements to silence his accusers. Now we have a Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, who is being accused of sexual assault by three separate women.

The charges against Catholic priests in many cases go back decades and stem as much from the coverups as the original crimes. Weinstein and Cosby got away with their crimes for decades by using the power of their positions to deter accusations. Kavanaugh supporters claim disbelief because the assaults weren’t reported at the time of occurrence. The same supporters also question the accusers veracity claiming suspicions that they are making the accusations for political reasons.

Most research shows that between 70% and 80% of sexual assaults go unreported for one reason or another. The accusations against Kavanaugh go back 30 plus years just like the accusations against Cosby for which he was recently sentenced to 3 to 10 years in jail showing that the number of years since the crime doesn’t matter. It appears that there are several reasons that the three brave women have suddenly spoken up about their experiences at the hands of Kavanaugh, the #MeToo movement that began with the downfall of Harvey Weinstein not least among them. Another likely reason is that the first Kavanaugh accuser, Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, saw that telling the story of her life changing attack could protect others from such an experience and an opportunity to strike back at her assailant with maximum effect. Now that Senate Republicans have been working to push aside Dr. Ford’s testimony and rush to confirm Kavanaugh other victims have come out to tell their stories in support. This is similar to the Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby accusers, once someone was brave enough to speak of their attacks it emboldened those who had previously held their tongues in fear.

They are even Republican women on national television making the excuse that such behavior is just what teenage boys do. As the father of a young woman; I say if that’s what you believe then you’re an awful parent and your sons need to be locked up to protect the safety of girls everywhere.

Some of my Republican neighbors complain that the women’s accusations are just political attacks and are unworthy of consideration on that basis alone. I’ve got news for them, confirmation hearings are political events by their very nature just like nearly everything else Congress does so that’s just an excuse to get their guy on the Supreme Court. The rush to confirm Kavanaugh is political, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley recognize that there is a chance that if they have to start the confirmation process all over with a new nominee it won’t happen until after the mid-terms and it’s possible they’ll lose control of the Senate in addition to the House which is already likely lost. This could be their only chance to stack the Supreme Court and Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz want to make darn sure it happens especially since Cruz is one of those at risk of losing his seat.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - September 28, 2018

Appeals Courts Matter

Too often we voters only pay attention to the most high profile races, in part it’s because of the allure of a race for President or Senate but our media also tends to focus on those races to the detriment of  other races both closer to home and in some ways more likely to impact us as individuals. It’s rare that we hear about judicial races even for appellate courts that cover large parts of the state like the Fourth Court of Appeal which covers 32 counties west and south of Guadalupe County. There’s plenty of news about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and that should be a reminder to us all just how important our judiciary is.

Mid-level appellate courts like the Fourth Court of Appeal are where big questions of justice are most often answered as most of their decisions are not appealed further. Those decisions can impact you on issues like medical malpractice, compensation for injury in an auto or workplace accident, or responsibility for shoddy workmanship by a homebuilder. The same appeals courts also handle issues related to family law like child custody and child support as well as criminal cases.

You probably know someone who has been involved in one or more of those kinds of cases and even if their case wasn’t appealed the result of that case was affected by prior decisions made by those justices. When an appeals court judge issues a decision it includes an opinion stating the rationale and those decisions are frequently cited in trial courts when there is a controversy over the application of law and the trial judge is expected to act consistent with those prior decisions. This makes it important for appellate court justices to have trial court experience.

The upcoming elections in Guadalupe County will include five Fourth Court of Appeals races. Many of the Republican challengers are men who have had no experience in a civilian trial court other than submitting filings and perhaps taking notes. They haven’t so much as picked a jury let alone argued a case. Some have lists of purported accomplishments like staff attorney in the court or Judge Advocate in the Marine Corps. One of the Republicans seems to expect to win just because he has an R behind his name on the ballot as he isn’t out campaigning and raising money to get his message out.

All five Democrats are women with many years of experience in trial courts, three have also had 6 years of experience on the Fourth Court of Appeals. There is a clear difference between the candidates for each of the five positions up for election on the court and the Democrats running have the experience hands down.

Judge Rebeca Martinez spoke at a meeting I attended earlier this week and told us that she was inspired to become a lawyer when she was 12 years old when she watched the Al Pacino movie “And Justice for All”. I’ve also heard Judge Patricia Alvarez speak about her inspiration for becoming an attorney and then a judge. That kind of passion for justice is what I want to see in every judge and you should too.

Early voting starts October 22 and election day is November 6, you have plenty of time to get to the polls so remember how important it is to elect qualified appeals court judges. Vote for Rebeca Martinez, Patricia Alvarez, Luz Elena Chapa, Beth Watkins, and Liza Rodriguez and you’ll get the best appellate judges available anywhere.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - September 21, 2018

Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies

Recently Senator Bernie Sanders introduced a bill called the Stop Bad Employers by Zeroing Out Subsidies (Stop BEZOS) Act. The bill proposes to tax employers on the amount of public assistance their full time employees receive on a dollar for dollar basis. A prime example is an Amazon warehouse employee earning minimum wage or thereabouts which could qualify them for as much as $3,000 in public assistance. Since this essentially subsidizes the highly profitable company with taxpayer funds, money collected from you and me, Sanders’ bill would tax Amazon $3,000.

Of course the simple solution would be for Amazon, Walmart and other low wage employers to simply pay their employees a living wage which is in fact the goal of the bill as stated in the bill itself and pointed out by its author and supporters. The Stop BEZOS Act isn’t so much an attempt to tax low wage employers as it is an attention getting device intended to push for higher minimum wages and corporations taking responsibility for their employees. Congressman Ro Khanna filed companion legislation in the House known as the Corporate Responsibility and Taxpayer Protection Act and makes the point that “we need to make sure that everyone is participating in the economic success”.

Low pay isn’t the only area where Amazon, Walmart and numerous other highly profitable corporations need shaming. Amazon has been reported to keep ambulances on standby at warehouses where temperatures are so high that workers routinely pass out with heat stroke. Walmart has been cited repeatedly for cheating their employees on overtime by requiring them to clock out but locking them in the store until floors are clean and shelves are stocked. It isn’t just mammoth companies that make these unjust and often illegal demands of their employees, there are many small and medium size companies which use similar tactics to increase profits at the cost of their employees.

It’s not that Amazon or Walmart are inherently evil but they’ve been allowed to become major factors in the economy and the well-being of our nation without requiring them to be responsible corporate citizens. In the 1950s and 1960s the auto industry was a major factor in the economy and while they didn’t willing act responsibly the fact that much of their workforce was unionized put a leash on their worst behaviors which enabled assembly line workers and others to enjoy a good and healthy life with a decent retirement. Amazon, Walmart and so many others operate off the union leash and their stockholders are the only beneficiaries. You and I are forced to pick up the tab to keep those employees fed while Jeff Bezos spends his unjustly accumulated riches building rockets to take him into space.

I’m not so partisan as to say that Republicans are solely responsible for skewed distribution of wealth in this country as I’m quite aware that Democrats, in particular Bill Clinton, have done their fair share to yank the wheels off the cart. Nevertheless at least many Democratic officials recognize the problem and want to address it while I’ve never heard a Republican even admit that a problem exists. I think we all know that Alcoholics Anonymous maxim – the first step is recognizing you have a problem. So given that Democrats are beginning to recognize we have a problem it is in the best interests of all to insure they’re elected this November.

You can start by voting for Beto O’Rourke for US Senate and picking every Democrat down the list.

Aren't You Angry?

I’m angry, I’m so angry it is hard to focus on any single issue to write about. In my free time, when not knocking on doors for a candidate I’ve been immersing myself in one of my favorite literary genres as an escape from the causes of my anger. I’m trying to do what I can to make our world a better place for my daughter and her generation but I feel frustrated by each day’s news that our government, supposedly the representative of our collective will continues to act against common decency.

The current White House occupant, the man who got nearly 3 million fewer votes than the woman who ran against him, continues to violate the order of a federal judge to return the children he instructed to be taken from the arms of their parents. It’s been over 40 days since the deadline passed and yet there are children still in the custody of federal authorities because of his mean-spiritedness.

My Republican neighbors make excuses for him and claim to agree which just means they too are mean spirited. How they reconcile their support for a policy that tears infants and young children from their parents in order to punish those parents for their temerity in walking up to border control station at Laredo or other border town requesting asylum with their claims to be devout Christians I’ll never understand.

The current White House occupant and his appointees to federal agencies along with his enablers in congress have assured that hundreds of children who have already suffered trauma most Americans will never know in countries overrun with violent gangs and corrupt governments are again traumatized by the country that they thought of as a place of safety. If I weren’t an American I would still be angry but I would feel no fault of my own. Being an American citizen, the son of a World War II veteran, I’m not just angry that it is happening, I’m angry that I’m in part responsible.

It’s not just the children of frightened refugees who our government is abusing, many young people who enlisted in our armed forces with the understanding that their service would earn them citizenship have been unceremoniously expelled. It disgusts me when I hear a Republican whether an elected official or simply a voter claims to support our troops but thinks it’s alright to deport veterans of our wars who thought their efforts had earned them a chance at citizenship.

The current White House occupant wants to end the Deferred Action for Child Arrivals program commonly known as DACA, if he finally gets his way he will be punishing the children and grandchildren of the people who actually committed the “crime” of stepping over an imaginary line. Nearly all of those children have little or no memory of any other country, many only speak English.

All those actions are awful, yet the current occupant of the White House isn’t satisfied and has now begun attempts to revoke the citizenship of people born near the border between Texas and Mexico. If you have a Hispanic surname and were born in that region you could have your passport application denied and you citizenship called into question.

The fact that it is my government and your government, which operates by the consent of the people, makes all of us responsible. Are you sickened by the man in the White House acting in your name? If you are then you not only need to vote in November you need to bring your family and neighbors too.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - September 7, 2018

Kavanaugh Nomination Tainted by Conspiracy with Foreign Adversaries

There are a host of reasons to reject Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court. From the purely partisan point of view there’s the theft of a seat in the last year of President Obama’s second term. From power perspective Kavanaugh has expressed some dangerous ideas such as his belief that a sitting President should be insulated from justice unless dispensed by congress through impeachment. From an issues point of view Kavanaugh’s decisions and dissents in numerous cases in ways that show his deference to corporate power over workers’ rights, religious bigotry over religious diversity, and the use of wealth to achieve political power in order to enhance that wealth.

I could write pages on how Kavanaugh could be one of the very worst possible choices for a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court but Kavanaugh’s views and rulings are not the only reasons to object. We should also consider that the man occupying the White House and nominated Kavanaugh has been all but named as an unindicted co-conspirator to felony crimes involving campaign finance violations that have a penalty of 5 years in prison attached. Michael Cohen who infamously organized the payoff of porn star Stormy Daniels testified in open court as he plead guilty to 8 counts that he acted at the instruction of the “candidate”. That means that Cohen not only committed a violation of campaign finance laws he was involved in a conspiracy with Donald Trump to do so.

In addition other Trump associates have been given immunity from prosecution for testimony that at present we can only propose educated guesses given their positions and what we already know about them through leaks. The publisher of the National Enquirer, David Pecker, kept a safe full of documents which tell a tale of Trump’s cover-ups and possibly other illegal acts and he is prepared to testify. The Trump Organization’s Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, who served in that capacity for over 20 years has also received immunity from prosecution for his testimony. That makes three of Trump’s closest associates, people who know “where the bodies are buried”, willing to testify against Trump.

Perhaps the most import of all the Cohen revelations is his statement that he witnessed the discussion Donald Trump denies having with his son in advance the meeting with Russian’s to collect dirt they claimed to have on Hillary Clinton. This provides evidence that Trump did indeed conspire with a foreign power against the United States.

Of course Trump hasn’t been convicted, but his legitimacy has definitely been called into question and while it is still too early to talk about impeachment it isn’t too early to put a stop to every judicial nominee’s appointment until such time as all the evidence has been presented and assessed. Most especially no President tainted by dalliances with foreign adversaries should be allowed to place their appointees on the federal bench for their lifetimes. The legitimacy of every single one of the judges he’s already appointed is also tainted.

The allegations against Trump are too significant to allow him to continue to reshape the federal judiciary unless and until the allegations are put to rest after a thorough review of the evidence presented. That won’t happen for months and likely not until after the election and only if his enablers on congress are defeated at the polls in November.

Protecting A Million Texans Requires Your Vote

As if you needed another reason to make time to vote in November think about this, Texas is one of 20 states suing the federal government to take away healthcare from millions of Americans especially middle and lower income Texans. Our Republican Attorney General, Ken Paxton, joined the suit earlier this year in an effort to use the courts to do what Congress chose not to. Paxton is empowered by the fact that Republicans control both houses of the legislature and every statewide office.

The cynical ploy used by the Attorneys General is the claim that since the individual mandate was central to the Affordable Care Act, the fact that Congress repealed it invalidates the entire law. Since 1.2 million Texans are covered through plans purchased via the Exchange created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) having the court decide in favor of killing it will endanger the lives and health of all of them. Of course it won’t have any effect on the 4.5 million Texans denied coverage by Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision not to accept the 90% federally funded Medicaid expansion.

Whether or not Democrats can beat Paxton directly by electing Justin Nelson to replace him or indirectly through electing a majority in one or both houses of the legislature and cutting his budget, it can be done. Readers have three or four ways to protect the healthcare of over a million Texans. They can vote to replace the current Attorney General with Justin Nelson who if elected will certainly withdraw from the suit. They can vote to replace the Governor with Lupe Valdez who can make it known to the legislature that she will veto any budget that continues to fund attacks on the Affordable Care Act. They can vote to replace the incumbent in the House with John Rodgers who would fight to force Paxton to drop the suit by cutting his budget. Rodgers would also demand that the state take the federal money to expand Medicaid which would not only be a boon to those 4.5 million Texans not currently insured, it would also stimulate the economy of the entire state leading to many more jobs and higher paying jobs as well. If you live in the part of Guadalupe County which is in Senate District 25 you can replace the incumbent who is widely recognized one of the worst legislators in Texas with Steve Kling.

On the federal side we have an opportunity to put a stop to Republican efforts to repeal the ACA in whole or in part by taking back one or both houses of Congress. We need to hold onto a House seat by voting for Vicente González so that in other districts where Republican incumbents are in jeopardy of losing their seats we can gain enough to achieve a majority there. This is really important as Republicans in the House are still working to undermine the ACA by any means available. They are also plotting to cut Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid benefits claiming that they are causing a deficit; when in fact that deficit is caused mostly by the tax breaks they just gave big banks and billionaires. A Democratic House majority insures that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and the ACA all continue to be adequately funded.

There is also the very real possibility of replacing one of the Senate’s most unpopular members if we all get out and vote for Beto O’Rourke. If Texas voters flip that seat it will go a long way toward making it possible to win a majority in the Senate.

Vote! Vote! Vote!

Democrats Know the Solution is Medicare for All

In 2009 when the Democratic controlled Congress passed and President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, there was hope that nearly all Americans would soon be able to access healthcare, especially preventive care. It was expected that millions who had previously suffered, thousands who would have died and tens of thousands who would have gone bankrupt or heavily into debt would be able to breathe a sigh of relief. Some few claims by proponents turned out to be exaggerated but on the whole millions did indeed get health insurance at a price they could afford and had access to doctors and prescription medication previously unavailable to them. Even before the ink was dry on President Obama’s signature, Republicans in Congress and state governments began working to prevent Americans from having affordable healthcare. Governor Rick Perry declared that Texas would not expand Medicaid and thus denied one million Texans, many of them children the opportunity to see a doctor and receive adequate treatment.

If you’ve listened to their excuses for their behavior it becomes quite clear that in the conservative mind only those who have jobs with sufficient income even deserve the benefit of healthcare. Now they don’t say it outright but that’s really what it boils down to. If you get sick or have an accident you can get as much healthcare as you can pay for. It doesn’t matter how hard you work, it just matters how much you’re paid for it.

President Obama’s Affordable Care Act was an attempt to satisfy the conservative mind by retaining the capitalist model of the existing system and even making it more profitable for insurers, as they’d have more customers, while taking care of a far greater portion of the American public. It works fairly well at what it was intended to do and would work better if Republicans including the current White House resident would stop trying to break it.

The experiment has also shown us that the capitalist approach to healthcare is not the solution that Republicans claim it is. Private insurance companies drive up the cost of care in a number of ways including the right to take 20% of premiums for themselves. In addition they cost the medical profession significant amounts due to arcane billing procedures and delays in payments. Worse still private insurers often make difficult to actually receive the care we think we’re paying for by denying the treatment the doctor prescribed for any number of reasons. When Republicans were fighting the Affordable Care Act they complained about unelected bureaucrats getting between you and your doctor, I find it telling that they had no such concerns about the flunkies of profit seeking corporations getting between you and your doctor.

Democrats in Congress and the Texas legislature have come around to an idea that many in the public already had which is that the solution to the high and often unaffordable cost of healthcare is to make it a part of what you get for your tax dollars just like every other industrialized nation on earth and even places like Iraq.

In Congress, Democrats are actively pushing for a bill known as Medicare for All while in the Texas legislature we can look forward to something similar. Both bills guarantee that every resident will receive comprehensive healthcare services. Individuals will have free choice of licensed health professionals and services including vision and dental care as well as home healthcare, adult day care, and hospice.

Healthcare for millions more Americans at lower cost, what other reason do you need to vote for Democrats in November?

Published in the Seguin Gazette - August 16, 2018

Republican Plot to Kill Paid Sick Leave

How do you feel about going into a restaurant or fast food place and being served by someone who is obviously ill? How would you feel if they were sick but you couldn’t tell just by looking or their behavior? How do you feel about your child being served by someone sick? What if it is another kind of retailer or an office you work in?

It’s important to consider this because not every employer provides paid sick leave and that encourages people who are paid at or near minimum wage to work even when sick. We all understand that many illnesses like the flu are easily transmitted from one person to another and we even have a word for an action taken to stop the spread of especially virulent strains, that word is quarantine. If you’re ill and don’t have some overwhelming reason to be out and about most people will self-quarantine just because they don’t feel like doing anything other than staying home in bed or on the sofa.

Low income folks without paid sick leave often are compelled to work even when quite ill by the need to make the rent or buy groceries for their family. Instead of self-quarantining they then interact with dozens of people and run the risk of infecting some of them. Many businesses recognize that having sick people at work just makes it more likely for other members of the staff to become sick as well and therefore offer paid sick leave.

In an effort to address the health concerns of the public who may shop at or otherwise visit locations where the employer encourages ill staff to work the cities of Austin has passed a paid sick leave ordinance. In San Antonio citizens have gathered 140,000 signatures on a petition to get a proposition to create a paid sick leave ordinance on the November ballot.

So far this seems quite reasonable but our Texas Attorney General, Ken Paxton (R), claims the Texas Minimum Wage Act preempts cities from enacting a paid sick leave ordinance. I’ve read the legislation, nowhere in it does it even mention sick leave. AG Paxton isn’t the only one on this crazy horse, our state senator, Donna Campbell (R), sent the mayor of San Antonio a letter urging him to block such an ordinance on the grounds that employers don’t like it. According to her letter some members of the business community have taken exception to the proposition on the grounds that it will cause them to lose business opportunities. This is typical Republican logic, make poor, sick people work until they drop and the heck with the health consequences for everyone else because “job creators” need every penny.

Sen. Campbell and AG Paxton just don’t get that employers aren’t job creators, customers are, and when you sicken your customers and your other employees you’re really just hurting your own bottom line. Worse they don’t care about the public health issues created by forcefully encouraging sick people to expose themselves to the general public. Given that Campbell is an emergency room doctor you’d think she’d know better but as in other cases in the past Campbell has let her raging right wing agenda override her professional judgement.

In about 90 days you and I will have an opportunity to send her a resounding message that her failure to look out for the health and well-being of the citizens of her district and all of Texas are unacceptable by electing Steve Kling as our new state senator for Senate District 25.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - August 10, 2018

Health Care Promises versus Real Proposals

When running for president, Trump claimed he already had plans in the works for fixing the healthcare mess this country has suffered for 70 years.  Candidate Trump promised “We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” in an interview with The Washington Post. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us” he continued. On another occasion he claimed "​I am going to take care of everybody. I don't care if it costs me votes or not, the government's gonna pay for it." Not only have those promises not been kept; there has been no actual plan proposed by the Trump administration that would even attempt to fulfill them.

Democrats in congress have already filed legislation that would address all those issues, it’s called Medicare for All and our congressman, Vicente Gonzalez, is a sponsor of the bill. There’s a reason that the “market” can’t provide health care for all at reasonable costs. Health care isn’t like a commodity or even most services.

When you need it you don’t have time to shop around, sometimes you need it regardless of the cost so rising prices don’t substantially affect demand as they would for most commodities and for the most part there is no substitute or alternative. If the price of potatoes goes up people eat more rice or bread. As the price of beef has risen people switch to chicken. When you’ve got an infection that’s gone septic your alternatives are strong antibiotics with hospital care or surgery to remove the affected limb or death. I know because my wife spent three months in the hospital and various rehabilitation facilities after coming close to death.

Another claim was “I firmly believe that nobody will be worse off financially in the process that we’re going through.” I got a raise in February and in March my insurance premium went up almost exactly the same amount. While not every reader may have experienced it I’ll bet most of you have found that your insurance premiums have risen yet again.

A recent study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University projects that if Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ “Medicare for All” bill were to pass overall health costs would go down, and wages would go up. Had the study been done by some group at the University of California at Berkeley I’d expect a lot of complaints of liberal bias, in this case the Mercatus Center is backed by wealthy Libertarian Koch brothers. So if even the far right can see the benefits of the Democrats bill we should all be confident it’s the real deal.

Early in his campaign, candidate Trump claimed on Twitter, “I was the first & only potential GOP candidate to state there will be no cuts to Social Security, Medicare & Medicaid”. In October 2015, he tweeted, "I am going to save Medicare and Medicaid, …”. So far there’s  been no indication that he’s actually working to avoid cuts to Medicare and Medicaid and since the Republican controlled congress is working on legislation to slash both programs in the name of deficit reduction he’d better get a move on or he’ll fail to fulfill yet another campaign promise.

In November if we elect a Democratic governor, state senate and state house they could then pass the  Healthy Texas Act which would provide similar coverage to Medicare for All but just in Texas. If you believe that everyone deserves health care get out and vote for Democrats in November.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - August 3, 2018

Can Will Hurd Save America? Does he Want to?

Last week the New York Times published an op-ed by Representative Will Hurd who represents the Texas 23rd congressional district spanning from San Antonio almost to El Paso. Hurd wrote of his concerns that Russia’s interference in U.S. elections weren’t being addressed by the Trump administration. Hurd is a former C.I.A. undercover officer so he has deeper knowledge of spying, disinformation and politics than many of his colleagues.

Hurd called out Trump for actively participating in the misinformation campaign to cover up Russia’s actions and at the same time weaken the credibility of and confidence in the United States government at home and abroad. Hurd points out that Russia is working to “sow chaos in our electoral system”. He also reminds us that the United States isn’t Russia’s only target and in fact is just one of many including Great Britain, France, Montenegro, Georgia and Ukraine.

Hurd also refers to comments by director national intelligence Dan Coats continued cyber-attacks by Russia as well as other adversaries on our digital infrastructure involving elections systems as well as electric power grids, water treatment facilities, and oil and gas pipelines.

I am not a fan of Will Hurd, but he deserves credit for calling out Trump and making it clear to Republicans around the country that Russia and Putin are not our friends. I hope that Hurd will follow-up on his concerns by standing up to Intelligence Committee Chair Devin Nunes should he continue to try to cover up Russian interference. Hurd also needs to speak out in support of the work being done by Robert Mueller to expose any conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia, especially Paul Manafort whose trial starts Tuesday next week.

A few months ago the White House cybersecurity advisors all resigned response to Trump’s inattention to their concerns about the same kinds of attacks that Hurd and Coats spoke of. Last week Trump eliminated the cybersecurity coordinator position which makes it quite clear that the advisors were right and he isn’t paying attention to the threat.

Does Trump just not get it that the strength and stability of our government is at risk? Is he simply willing to take advantage of Russian interference for the sake of winning elections? Or is he an active participant in a conspiracy to disrupt our nation for his own ends? Given that during the campaign Trump publicly called on Russia to hack Hillary Clinton’s computers and within hours they did so one is left wondering just how cozy he is with Putin.

It’s important the Hurd not follow the example of Senator Jeff Flake who calls out Trump at every opportunity and then votes for whatever Trump wants. It’s time that Republican leaders put country over party and stand on the brakes so that our nation has a chance to recover from the damage already done and not continue to crumble under attacks that we have the power to stop or at least mitigate.

I hope we’ll see other Republicans recognize that the integrity of our democracy is at risk and there is no excuse for partisan acts in this critical moment.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - July 27, 2018

Impeach Trump - Don't Hold Your Breath

If you’re a Democrat expecting Republicans either in Congress or on the street to turn against Trump anytime soon you should go back to the lessons of Nixon and Watergate. There you’ll find that accusations of wrong doing by the press and Democrats only serve to strengthen their commitment to their guy. We’ve got a long hard road ahead before there’s the slightest chance that Republicans in Congress will turn on Trump and it may never happen if Robert Mueller’s investigation is shutdown as various Republican leaders have repeatedly called for.

Trump like Nixon before him wasn’t loved by leading Republicans, they didn’t trust him to be conservative enough after having been the liberal Republican Dwight Eisenhower’s Vice President. It was the beginning of the Watergate investigation that solidified Nixon’s support among the conservative media and leadership. The more the New York Times, the Washington Post and other media outlets reported on his criminal actions the more strongly Republicans supported Nixon.

We can see this in play today with Trump, Republican leadership held their collective noses when Trump won the nomination and backed tepidly through the general election. As repeated Trump administration scandals have been reported such as former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price’s use of private charters and military aircraft for travel, today’s more powerful conservative media have defended Trump. Congress has generally ignored the unethical behavior including Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin who also used private charters and military aircraft for personal travel at the taxpayer’s expense. The same holds true for recently departed Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt who mis-used taxpayer funds for unnecessary security details, construction of a soundproof phone booth in his office and other violations of agency rules.

Even this week’s outrageous Helsinki Summit remarks in which Trump took the side of former KGB agent and current Russian President Vladimir Putin over every American intelligence agency and his own staff in stating that he had no reason to believe that the Russians had interfered with the 2016 election has only briefly ruffled the feathers of a few Republican Senators and media figures. Only a day later everything was back to normal, none of those Senators said they’ll vote against Trump appointees or support Democrats calls to allow congress to review Trump’s tax returns. By the time you read this I expect that Republicans will be talking about how Trump’s two hour private meeting with Putin was a good thing and somehow improved national security.

Even the revelation that Russian secret agent Maria Butina was arrested and indicted on charges of conspiring against the United States hasn’t affected Trump supporters in his party. Of course that might be because she helped funnel Russian government funds to the National Rifle Association which enabled them to spend millions of dollars on the 2016 election.

I’m sorry to tell you that until there’s not only a dead body, a smoking gun, video recordings and eye witness testimony from Mike Pence we’re going to be stuck with Trump. It’s not enough to just vote in November, you’re going to need to get your parents to vote, your children to vote and your siblings to vote. If you really want to stop this train wreck you’re going to have to commit to donating a few dollars to Beto O’Rourke’s senate campaign or Mike Collier for Lt. Governor. You’re going to have to volunteer for John Rodgers who is running for Texas House in Guadalupe County or Steve Kling for Texas Senate in our area. Nothing will change if we wait for Republicans to do it.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - July 20, 2018

Republicans Know How to Exercise Power

I have to compliment Senator Mitch McConnell, he knows how to use power. When there was a Democrat as president and a vacancy on the Supreme Court 9 months before a presidential election and 11 months before a new president would take office McConnell used his power as Senate Majority Leader to stop even the consideration of the President Obama’s nominee. His argument was that the people should be allowed to speak. It didn’t matter that his action was unprecedented. The people spoke and nearly 3 million more voted for the Democrat. Nevertheless a Republican won due to the anti-democratic Electoral College votes and it didn’t matter that it was hypocritical to still prevent even a hearing let alone a vote.

Now only 5 months from an election in one third of the senators who will vote on the new president’s Supreme Court nominee will stand for election he’s pushing hard to assure that a vote is taken before the people have an opportunity to speak again. Democrats just don’t have the idea that when you have power you’re supposed to exercise it. Obama had overwhelming majorities in both the House and Senate and failed to use his power to push through a robust Affordable Care Act. Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi allowed the Republicans to amend and twist the bill into a pretzel without ever committing to vote for it. That’s one of the reasons Republicans and Trump have been able to whittle away parts of it in an attempt kill it without taking blame for breaking the parts that even Republican voters like.

Obama and the Democratic congressional leadership failed to use the power of their offices to twist arms that needed twisting and it was just the Affordable Care Act. We didn’t get the forceful stimulus bill we needed, nor the environmental protection bill that would have put a real dent in climate change, or an immigration bill that might have prevented the tragedy we’re seeing at our southern border today. In fact I would argue that Obama’s failure to use the power inherent in the office is the very reason we have Trump as president today. I believe that if he had used his power in concert with the congressional leadership Democratic voters wouldn’t have sat on their hands in 2010 and Republicans wouldn’t have taken control of both houses of Congress. If he’d been the strong leader we needed voters in states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Florida would have turned out to vote for another Democrat in 2016 and the winner of the most votes would have also won the Electoral College vote.

It’s important that Democrats get out and vote in November so we can take back the Senate and the state legislature. It’s also important that our Democratic leaders use their power to do the people’s will. Failure to use your power is a lot like failure to use your muscles. Democrats have allowed their power to atrophy unlike Mitch McConnell who doesn’t even blink at his own hypocrisy. McConnell uses his power to get anything and everything he can accomplished.

Neither Franklin Delano Roosevelt nor Lyndon Johnson were perfect, but they did great things for this country because they understood both the need and the method for exerting power. As we now know winning elections isn’t enough if you aren’t going to use your power to get things done. Understanding the use of power is one of the key attributes I will look for in every candidate in future primary elections.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - July 13, 2018

Why are they working so hard to suppress your vote if it doesn't matter?

As this is the week of the 242nd anniversary of the Declaration of Independence it seems appropriate to consider that document in the context of today. In particular I find a phrase from the preamble to be of import; “…Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”. This is one of several concepts related to the founding of this nation which set it apart from most other countries of the time. Sadly the concept of consent of the governed is under attack today and has been for some years.

Texas and other Republican controlled states have been using a variety of methods to prevent voters from getting the governance they would choose. Racial and partisan gerrymandering have received much attention from the courts and had been getting attention of the Department of Justice until the Republican controlled Supreme Court overturned important parts of the Voting Rights Act. Rulings this term have both given hope and caused despair to those advocating for fair districts. In some states the Republican party only gets about 40% of the votes but controls 60% of the state legislature. In Texas 55% of the votes allows control of 65% of the seats.

Gerrymandering isn’t the only method used to prevent the people from getting the government of their choice. The passage of the 15th Amendment, which gave freed slaves the right to vote shortly after the Civil War, and which required the passage in 1965 of the Voting Rights Act to enforce is again being undermined by numerous states. Instead of using outright voter intimidation Republican controlled legislatures like that of Texas have passed draconian voter identification regulations. Republicans in Florida and Houston use control of elections departments to purge voter roles in ways that unfairly target minority and low income voters. A Supreme Court ruling a few years ago voiding parts of the Voting Rights Act has made it difficult to prevent such heavy handed attacks on the right to vote. Now with Republican control of the Department of Justice the federal government has gotten out of the business of even attempting to enforce voting rights.

The Republican Party of Texas 2018 platform specifically calls for the repeal of the Voting Rights Act. Conversely the Texas Democratic Party calls for restoration and aggressive enforcement of the Voting Rights Act.

What is consent if not choice? How can you give consent if your right to choose is suppressed?

It’s unfortunate that too many Texans don’t even bother to vote which just makes the job of those seeking to suppress their votes easier. It’s been said many times that Texas isn’t a Republican state it’s non-voting state. I will be the first to admit that Democrats aren’t all angels and that far too many have not lived up to their promises or the values of the party they claim. On the other hand that’s why we have elections and in fact why we have primaries. I believe that if everyone voted in primaries we’d get better Democrats in office when we do elect them. For that matter if more Republicans voted in their primaries we’d probably seen fewer extremist Republicans in office.

So I ask those who think their vote doesn’t matter or that elections aren’t important to their daily lives to consider this; if their votes aren’t important why are Republicans working so hard to prevent people like you from voting?

Published in the Seguin Gazette - July 6, 2018

Texas Democratic Party Platform the Finest in History

Saturday last week in Fort Worth the Texas Democratic Party (TDP) overwhelmingly passed the finest platform in its history. Among other important planks the platform calls for legalization of marijuana like Colorado, a moratorium on new fracking wells and shutting down existing fracking wells by 2026, as well as enacting sensible gun laws to curtail the availability of weapons with extended ammunition magazines, including rapid-fire, magazine-fed weapons.

I had the honor and privilege to be appointed to the Chair’s Advisory Committee on the Platform. My appointment allowed me to have extensive input on both the topics and positions recommended to those who were elected from each of the 31 senate districts at the Texas Democratic Party convention in Fort Worth last week.

Criminal justice reform is a big topic and was placed at the beginning of the platform to emphasize its importance. Due to the high number of Texans jailed for non-violent crimes we the taxpayer are burdened with those costs while it fails to accomplish one of the presumed goals of rehabilitation. The TDP platform calls for big reductions in incarceration starting with bail reform so that being poor doesn’t mean an automatic jail sentence even if found innocent. We also call for eliminating incarceration for many non-violent crimes in favor of probation and other programs which are much more cost effective. We also demand a quick end to private prisons as there should never be a profit incentive for jailing people.

There are a rare few items with which we agree or nearly agree with the Republican Party of Texas (RPT) such as marijuana reform which we believe should involve full legalization similar to Colorado while they only call for making possession of small amounts equivalent to a speeding ticket. The TDP platform also calls for the immediate release of anyone incarcerated for possession of marijuana and expunging their convictions. I’m don’t smoke and I don’t drink so I don’t have much of an axe to grind but if alcohol consumption is legal then I can see no reason to ruin someone’s life over their choice to get inebriated via cannabis.

While the RPT suggests allowing counties to use paper ballots, something the can already do, Democrats call for a return to paper ballots statewide on the ground that it is the only truly auditable and unhackable method of recording our votes. If our democratic republic is to survive it is imperative that we have confidence in the results of our elections. So far there is no evidence that Russian or Chinese hackers succeeded in changing actual ballot counts we know that they did indeed gain access to the election systems of several states and counties we should take steps to insure that it can’t ever happen.

The TDP platform differs in significant ways from the RPT platform passed just a couple of weeks ago in that we support the federal Voting Rights Act and the Texas Voting Rights Act, and restoration of the federal preclearance policies that were overturned by the Supreme Court while they want to repeal those protections. The TDP supports extended early voting periods that the RPT wants to shorten.  Our platform calls for creating a nonpartisan redistricting commission to end racial and political gerrymandering in our redistricting process. We also call for a constitutional amendment to eliminate the electoral college and award the presidency to the winner of the nationwide popular vote so that candidates have to campaign in all states not just swing states.

To see the entire platform enter “texas democratic party platform 2018” in your favorite search engine.

Published in the Seguin Gazette June 29, 2018

Highlights of and Link to the 2018 Texas Democratic Party Platform

Criminal Justice

Bail Reform

The Texas Democratic Party Supports amending Texas Constitution Art. 1 § 11, § 13 and Texas Code of Criminal 17.01 and 17.02 to create a pre-trial release system that:

·         presumes release on personal recognizance for people charged with non-violent offenses who have little or no criminal history;

·         requires immediate release of low-risk defendants under the least restrictive conditions necessary to guarantee appearance at court proceedings;

Re­entry

Texas Democrats support programs that decrease recidivism by providing ex-offenders with a pathway back to productive participation in society. Texas Democrats support reducing recidivism by:

·         increasing access to rehabilitation and re-entry programs, with a special emphasis on reducing drug use among people released from prison, including the reversal of policies that deny student loans and grants to those who have completed sentences for drug felonies; and

Mass Incarceration

·         ending the practice of sending poor people to jail or prison for inability to pay fines and court costs;

·         redirecting mentally ill offenders from the criminal justice system to treatment programs when the risk to public safety is low;

Eliminating Private Prisons

·         amending the Texas Constitution to require state and local governments to directly operate and perform all core services at prisons, jails, and detention facilities within the State of Texas, and expressly prohibit the use of private prisons, jails, and detention facilities within the State of Texas;

Democracy

·         existing voter protection policies under the federal Voting Rights Act and the Texas Voting Rights Act, and restoration of the federal preclearance policies in the Voting Rights Act that were overturned by the Supreme Court;

·         instituting vote by mail for all elections – federal, state and local;

·         the creation of a nonpartisan redistricting commission to end racial and political gerrymandering in our redistricting process;

·         a constitutional amendment to eliminate the electoral college and award the presidency to the winner of the nationwide popular vote, and failing that, we urge all states to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, so that candidates must campaign everywhere and not just in swing states;

·         a return to paper ballots because they are more secure, much less expensive, and are the only method that can provide a truly auditable vote count;

·         the report and recommendations of the Unity Reform Commission to the Democratic National Committee as a carefully considered and eloquent prescription for strengthening democracy for all American citizens in general elections and Democratic Party nominations.

Ethics in Government

·         requiring elected officials throughout the state, including local or county officials, to file a personal financial statement to allow for more transparency; and

·         requiring every candidate for the President of the United States to disclose their complete federal tax return and, upon election, place private holdings in a blind trust for divestment.

Good Jobs Build Strong Communities

·         Every American should have a right to a job; therefore, federally funded jobs paying at least a living wage with health insurance and other typical benefits on projects selected by the states and local governments must be available in or near every community.

Healthcare for All

The Texas Democratic Party asserts that healthcare is a human right, not a privilege for the few. Texas Democrats recognize that the health and well-being of Texas residents cannot be based on decisions made by non-healthcare professionals whose primary concern is the financial well-being of a corporation rather than the well-being of an individual.

·         support the inclusion of a “Single Payer Option” as an addition to the plans currently offered under the state exchange systems;

Cannabis Reform

·         Texas legislation to legalize possession and use of cannabis and its derivatives and to regulate its use, production and sale as is successfully done in Colorado, Washington and other States;

Gun Violence Prevention

·         Closing loopholes that allow guns to be sold or traded without passing a mandatory and thorough background check;

·         Enacting legislation to require all individuals charged with domestic violence, human trafficking, sexual assault, domestic or foreign terrorism, stalking or any violent felony to temporarily surrender all weapons and ammunition in their possession to law enforcement pending adjudication of their case(s);

·         Enacting sensible gun laws to curtail the availability of weapons with extended ammunition magazines, including rapid-fire, magazine-fed, military-style assault weapons;

Energy and Environment

A Moratorium on Fracking

·         a moratorium on new fracking wells;

·         set a goal of shutting down existing fracking wells by 2026;

·         set a goal of ending the practice of injecting wastewater by 2023;

Clean and Available Water

• Access to clean drinking water is a human right.

Immigration

·         strongly oppose the Trump Administration’s policy abusing children by of separating children from their parents at the southern border and denounce housing children in tent cities;

·         strongly oppose “tender age” shelters for infants and small children;

·         strongly oppose the Trump Administration so called “zero tolerance” approach to immigration;

·         strongly oppose the Trump Administration’s policy to no longer recognize asylum claims or Temporary Protected Status for refugees fleeing forced gang recruitment and violence perpetrated by gangs and refugees fleeing domestic violence;

·         support securing and protecting our border, while treating asylum seekers humanely;

·         strongly oppose any type of bans based on religious affiliation or country of origin;

·         strongly oppose efforts to build a border wall of any size and the unrealistic claim, and possibly abandoned claim, that a foreign country will pay for a border wall;

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1NdguJq-4AhdyAz4WLzo_B-9HjMzJb1mS