Immigrant Bashing for Votes and Bad Policy

 Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis is showing Texas what happens when a state passes draconian immigration laws. Undocumented immigrants flee the state which then shuts down construction businesses and leaves unpicked crops in the fields. Republicans in Florida are getting mad at DeSantis for wrecking their businesses while he grandstands on his harsh immigration policies while campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination in states like Iowa.

Gov. Greg Abbott just signed S.B. 4 last week which is similarly harsh regarding undocumented immigrants sending them to jail or deporting them quickly. In a few months there will be crops that need tending, homes that need building, and repairs that need doing but not enough people to do them here in Texas just like Florida today. Of course if Texas Republicans could remember as far back as 2011 they’d know this all played out before in Georgia and Alabama leaving millions of dollars in crops rotting in fields.

Florida has a 2.8% unemployment rate, which is more than 25% lower than the 3.9% national rate, so the argument that immigrants steal jobs from citizens is easily discredited. In fact there are only 53 people looking for work for every 100 job openings in Florida. Now the Republican controlled Florida legislature is considering solving the “problem” by loosening child labor laws to allow 16 and 17 year olds to work overnight during the school year. Such regulations were originally put in place to prevent work from interfering with children’s health, safety, and education. This isn’t about doing something positive for children it’s about bailing out the legislature from its own bad policy and giving benefits to corporations. From their point of view Republicans probably think high-schoolers that work too much and end up not finishing their education are a gold mine of future voters as the lower a voter’s educational attainment the less likely they are to vote for Democrats.

20 years ago Democrats and Republicans shared similar views in that they equally believed that immigrants strengthened the country. Today that’s no longer true as Republicans candidates and media talking heads have found a receptive audience for immigrant bashing. Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign and presidency raised such bashing to new heights all while Republican legislators have fought any form of comprehensive immigration reform. Today Republicans are using the desire of President Biden to continue supporting Ukraine in protecting its borders and citizens against the Russian invasion as leverage to push further harsh measures on immigrants and asylum-seekers.

Strangely we have blowhards like Senator Ted Cruz raising a ruckus about supposed open borders under Biden, a claim that is patently untrue, but which is getting media attention in Central and South American countries thereby encouraging migrants to rush to our southern border. Cruz and his Republican colleagues are actually a major cause of the very “crisis” they’re so loudly complaining about.

Then you have Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) whose mother was a Cuban refugee who fled the island nation in 1959 when Fidel Castro took power. When Malliotakis campaigned to represent the 11th District of New York in 2022 her rhetoric consisted of attacking asylum-seekers. That's more than a little hypocritical coming from the direct offspring of someone who came here seeking political asylum.

Democrats have repeatedly tried to pass comprehensive immigration reform that is both fair and effective but their colleagues across the aisle refuse to cooperate. If Republicans really wanted to address immigration they’ve had plenty of opportunities but have chosen not to because they prefer to use it as a hammer when campaigning and fund-raising.

Published in the Seguin Gazette December 27, 2023

False Patriots

When the vote to pass the continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown was held in the House 90 Republicans voted no, 16 of them were from Texas including Chip Roy who represents Comal County. In the Senate, Ted Cruz is one of 9 Republicans who voted no. Cruz and his fellow cranks were perfectly willing to put well over 6 million Americans out of work. 4 million of who would lose out on their pay entirely as they are contract workers such as office cleaning staff, groundskeepers, and others who don’t work directly for federal agencies.

Then there are all the businesses that depend on those employees to spend their money, like the food truck or sandwich shop nearby which then furloughs employees or cuts their hours. In addition, when national parks are closed it isn’t just the park rangers who suffer, there are all the folks who made plans months in advance that would not be allowed visit the park or would be forced to leave early, the hotels they’d have stayed in, the restaurants they’d have eaten in, the gift shop in the park that is also closed so their staff is laid off. The overall economic impact on small businesses is staggering. Most estimates suggest a shutdown costs the economy over $310 million per day in direct costs.

There is also the affect a shutdown has on citizens who have business with federal agencies, often with appointments that were set weeks or months in advance. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) would stop insuring some new mortgages. The Department of Agriculture (USDA) would stop new loan and loan guarantee activity.

All the turmoil and damage to peoples’ lives and a lot of Republicans don’t seem to care at all. Here’s one example, in an interview on C-SPAN Republican Rep. Brandon Williamson of New York said “I don't think you're going to find a huge amount of sympathy, you know, for people that have been furloughed, or early retirement, or laid off, or their pension going bankrupt.”

The big concession that was made to pass the bill to keep the federal government open for 45 more days was eliminating funding for aid to Ukraine in it’s war to eject the Russian occupiers from its territory and protect its people from the murders, rapes, and kidnapping that have been perpetrated by Russian troops. Republicans talk a good game about defending freedom and were big on “fighting communism” but they’re just fine with autocrats invading democracies. The Russian invasion of Ukraine orchestrated by Vladimir Putin was unprovoked and illegal under international law, but Donald Trump and his MAGA crowd including members of the House like Paul Gosar (AZ) and Matt Gaetz (FL), was well as J.D. Vance (OH) among others in the Senate are willing to turn their backs on the desperate people of Ukraine. They are unwilling to stand up to the bully even though no American troops are involved and most European countries are handing over equipment, ammunition, and supplies in addition to providing training for troops and repairs to damaged equipment.

Anyone who thinks that if Putin succeeds in Ukraine he’ll stop hasn’t studied history at all. They should go back and review Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement when Hitler violated the terms of the treaty that ended World War 1. Hint, Hitler invaded Poland, Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, Yugoslavia, and Greece in just 2 years.

Republicans are willing to wreck American lives and the economy as well as world peace. Remember that when they claim to be patriots.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 4, 2023

Ted Cruz Fights Against Workers

This week includes Labor Day, a celebration of the workers who actually do the jobs that allow us to have food on the table, clothes on our backs, and roofs over our heads.

Last week Senator Ted Cruz sent out one of his email blasts touting his four week tour around the state and purported accomplishments in Congress. Among the topics included in the email was his tour of a Bitcoin mining operation in Rockdale, TX a rural town between Austin and Bryan/College Station. Bitcoin is one of the more well-known brands of cyptocurrency. The facility is a big warehouse style building with rack upon rack of computers and huge amounts of air conditioning drawing a significant fraction of the total electricity used in the entire town while providing very few jobs. In Cruz’s email he says he is proud to “lead the fight to promote and protect this burgeoning sector of our economy.” That’s really interesting since when he campaigned for president in 2016 one of his “big ideas” was to return to the gold standard, something antithetical to the whole concept of cryptocurrency.  I’m not sure if this is a flip flop on his views or pandering to a segment of his campaign donors.

Cruz also pushed his effort to abolish the Internal Revenue Service, a scheme that would leave millions of federal employees without a paycheck since half of federal revenue comes from income taxes. Cruz is fear-mongering that the 87,000 new Internal Revenue Service employees that the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act authorizes will somehow take food off the table of average Americans when in fact due to Republican led budget cuts the agency has been unable to investigate wealthy tax cheats for decades. If you don’t cheat on your taxes you as an individual have nothing to worry about especially if you are filing on Form 1040-EZ or a basic 1040A as nearly all the info you enter is already available to the IRS. The only people who benefit from fewer IRS employees are wealthy tax cheats, a group who if they actually paid their fair share would pay more than five times as much as the salaries of those additional IRS employees.

Cruz is also fighting against President Biden’s effort to forgive student loans, an effort that stands to improve the lives of 43 million people while boosting the economy. Cruz called folks who work at coffee shops and have student loans slackers. I don’t know about you but anytime I walk into a coffee shop the folks there are hustling to take care of the customers in line, that’s not slacker behavior.

The rest of his email is about Cruz talking to local government officials and business people but he apparently couldn’t be bothered to speak to average workers and struggling parents. Let’s remember that Ted Cruz spends his time in congress fighting for the wealthiest among us to pay less taxes and get more federal contracts, while hundreds of thousands of Texans aren’t sure when they’ll eat their next meal and can’t afford medical care to ease their suffering or protect their lives.

 Published in the Seguin Gazette - September 7, 2022

 

Republican Rhetoric Leads to Violence

Monday last week the FBI served a search warrant at the previous president’s residence in Florida. Within hours and without knowledge of the grounds for the search warrant; Texas Republican leaders jumped to his defense. Sen. Ted Cruz tweeted “The FBI raiding Donald Trump is unprecedented. It is corrupt & an abuse of power. What Nixon tried to do, Biden has now implemented: The Biden Admin has fully weaponized DOJ & FBI to target their political enemies.” Gov. Greg Abbott used similar language in his tweet as well, "This is next-level Nixonian. Never before has the country seen an Administration go to such extent to use the levers of government to target a former President and political rival. This weaponizes power to squelch dissent. Such abuses must have limits".

More importantly they and others in the Republican leadership used inflammatory language which has been picked up and acted upon by armed men. In Cincinnati on Thursday Ricky Shiffer, armed with a rifle, tried to force his way into the FBI office leading to a standoff and ultimately his death. On Friday, in Phoenix, Arizona protestors armed with rifles showed up outside the FBI office.

Trump’s one time political advisor Steve Bannon called the FBI “the Gestapo” and said, “We need to choke down the FBI and choke down the Justice Department.” Another former Trump adviser, Michael Caputo, said, “With this militant raid on President Trump’s home, we have become Russia. The FBI is the KGB.” Fox News political commentator, Dan Bongino called the FBI’s action “some third-world bullshit.” In an interview former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, said the FBI has “declared war on the American people at such a level and with such total dishonesty.” We are seeing “the ugly face of a tyranny.”

There’s plenty of talk of “lock and load” and a “civil war” on social media, especially Trump’s Truth Social platform. Much of that language has long used by top cable pundit Tucker Carlson.

Amazingly or not the calls for violence and death threats against federal law enforcement have surged following the raid on Trump’s home, but Republicans have largely been quiet about the spike, despite previous campaign rhetoric claiming to support law enforcement when Black Lives Matter protests against repeated local police shootings of unarmed Black people were occurring across the country.

In an interview Steve Scalise, R-LA suggested that FBI agents who executed the warrant were rogue agents. Considering that the FBI is run by Christopher Wray, a Trump appointee, and that Attorney General Merrick Garland and federal judge Bruce Reinhart both signed off on the warrant I don’t see any “rogue” agents involved.

Trump and others called for the search warrant to be unsealed so A.G. Garland requested that the judge do so and late last week the warrant was published for all to see. Now Judge Reinhart is receiving death threats.

Republican leaders and conservative commentators are using the same kind of rhetoric bashing federal law enforcement as Timothy McVeigh, the man who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK and killed 168 people including 19 children.

Republican leaders are both irresponsible and behaving like the authoritarians that took power in Europe a century ago. I am frightened for our nation and its citizens.

In November you have a chance to send them a message they can’t ignore by voting them out of office. Get out and vote, bring your family, bring your neighbors, it has never been more important.

 Published in the Seguin Gazette - August 17, 2022

Cornyn and Cruz Betray Veterans

Republicans would have you believe that they’re all about supporting the troops and our veterans. Last week our senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, proved once again that support is just talk as they both voted against medical care for our veterans.

Back in March, when President Joe Biden made his State of the Union address one of the issues he brought up was U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan who were exposed to toxic smoke from burn pits. “These burn pits that incinerate waste — the wastes of war, medical and hazardous material, jet fuel, and so much more,” said the president.

Medical evidence says that as a result, many servicemen and women who breathed in fumes from these burn pits returned home and experienced serious symptoms. Prolonged exposure to burn pits may be responsible for cancer in some veterans. Biden has made no secret that he believes toxic exposure may have contributed to the brain cancer that killed his son Beau.

In his speech Biden called on Congress to approve a law “to make sure veterans devastated by toxic exposure in Iraq and Afghanistan finally get the benefits and the comprehensive healthcare they deserve.” The legislation congress introduced, known as the Honoring Our PACT Act (Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act), would expand treatment eligibility, and it has wide support in Congress.

At least it had wide support until it was announced that Senator Joe Manchin had reached agreement with Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to support a bill on an entirely different topic that has no effect on veteran health care. Then in a fit of pique 25 Republicans who previously supported the Honoring Our PACT Act flip flopped and voted against it which stopped the bill dead in its tracks as it only had 55 of the 60 votes needed to break the filibuster.

The bill Republicans are angry about is The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 which includes measures to reduce the budget deficit by among other things raising taxes on billionaires to fight inflation. The bill also calls for investing in domestic energy production and manufacturing, and reducing carbon emissions by roughly 40 percent by 2030. In addition the bill will finally allow Medicare to negotiate for prescription drug prices and extend the expanded Affordable Care Act program for three years, through 2025.

Among the provisions of The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 related to health care is a cap on Medicare patients’ out of pocket costs at $2,000 per year, with the option to break that amount into monthly payments of around $170 each. Currently, there is no cap on spending for prescription drugs seniors buy from pharmacies. This bill ensures that a devastating diagnosis, like cancer, will never again mean paying tens of thousands out of pocket for just one drug.

On the deficit reduction and tax side the current statutory corporate tax rate is 21%, but more than 200 highly profitable, large corporations use various tax loopholes to avoid paying that rate and actually pay below 15%, some pay no income tax at all. The corporate alternative minimum tax proposal would impose a 15 percent minimum tax on adjusted financial statement income for corporations with profits in excess of $1 billion.

So the reason that Ted Cruz and John Cornyn betrayed sick veterans is they’re mad their billionaire campaign donors might pay slightly higher taxes and pharmaceutical companies could see some of their outrageous profits reduced.

Just like the lies that Republicans spout about voter fraud, they also lie supporting veterans. Remember to vote them out of office in the upcoming election.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - August 3, 2022

Defend Our Democracy

Last week was the anniversary of the violent insurrection at the United States capitol by right wing activists attempting to stop the certification of presidential election results. The attack included ransacking congressional offices, theft of official computers, and vandalism including smearing their own feces on walls. Our democracy is so imperiled that Civil War historian David Blight recently wrote "Trump has birthed a dangerous new ‘Lost Cause’ myth" to describe the claims Trump lost the 2020 election due to voter fraud.

Reports is various media outlets say that the House select committee investigating the insurrection received copies of communications turned over by Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and others suggesting the White House coordinated efforts to stop Biden’s certification. The documents have led House investigators to become interested in whether Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy. Some of the documents indicate the Trump White House briefed several House Republicans on its plan for then-vice president Mike Pence to abuse his ceremonial role and not certify Biden’s win. Having these documents could give reason for the panel to consider criminal referrals of Trump administration members and possibly Trump as well. The committee’s first step is to determine whether the attempt to stop certification violated federal laws prohibiting obstruction of congressional proceedings.

Regardless of whether or not Trump is ever charged and convicted of an attempt to overthrow the government it’s important that the Freedom to Vote Act that I described last week be passed so that the gerrymandering that allows the Republican party to hold a disproportionate number of congressional seats as compared to the number of votes they earn. Our senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, refuse to support such efforts to restore our democratic institutions. Cruz in a recent interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson even backpedaled on calling the January 6 insurrection at the capitol a “terrorist attack”.

Cruz like most other Republicans holding federal and state office continue to abase themselves to Donald Trump because Trump supporters are so vocal. Around the country some state level Republicans have retired from office because they are unwilling to toe the Trump line and are afraid for themselves and their families due to the threats of violence made by local Trump supporters.

Sen. Cornyn, a former state judge, projects the elder statesman persona but has been instrumental in organizing Republican opposition to all efforts by Democrats to take the necessary steps to hold any officials accountable for organizing or assisting the insurrection as well as the effort to prevent passage of the Freedom to Vote Act or the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. It’s all about gaining and retaining power in service to their wealthy campaign donors, they make no effort to helping anyone else while giving lip service to the middle class even as their policies and actions cause the middle class to shrink as a percentage of the population.

Trump’s authoritarian populism aligns with white nationalist rhetoric while Republican ideology has drifted into neo-fascism. Remember that the characteristics of fascism are: absolute power of the state - such as making all abortions illegal, rule by a dictator – Trump’s claim that “I alone can fix the system”, corporatism – controlling labor by making unions, strikes, and other labor actions illegal, something Reagan started, extreme nationalism – such as the ginned up threats about immigrants especially those from the southern border, and superiority of the nation’s people – Trump’s appeal to white supremacists.

We the people must fight back, call our senators  and demand that they publicly support and vote for the Freedom to Vote Act today.

Texas' Senators Should Be Ashamed

Our two United States senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, shamed themselves last week by voting against even discussing S1, known as the “For the People Act”. The legislation would insure that all states offer early voting for at least 15 consecutive days of early voting for federal elections. The bill also requires that early voting locations be near public transportation, in rural areas and open for at least 10 hours per day. In other words our senators voted against requiring other states to offer similar voting opportunities to what Texas offers.

S1 also requires states to permit voters to register on the day of a federal election, including during early voting, something Texas doesn’t offer but is available in 18 other states plus Washington, D.C. States that allow citizens to register to vote closer to Election Day have higher participation rates. In Texas, at 30 days before election day; we have one of the earliest deadlines in the country, that's the earliest allowed by the National Voter Registration Act.

The “For the People Act” declares the right of citizens to vote in federal elections will not be denied because of a criminal conviction unless a citizen is serving a felony sentence in a correctional facility. The bill requires states and the federal government to notify individuals convicted of state or federal felonies, respectively, of the restoration of their voting rights. Texas offers a variation of this but voting rights aren’t restored until probation etc. is completed. Florida didn’t even offer that until recently when a citizen initiative passed overwhelmingly to restore voting rights then Republicans in the state legislature over-ruled the vote of the people to make it much harder for former convicts to again be able to vote.

S1 requires states to use individual, durable, voter-verified paper ballots and that those ballots are counted by hand or an optical character recognition device. Texas has no standard requirements on recording votes so Guadalupe and Kerr counties purchased machines that comply with this standard but neighboring Comal County spent millions of dollars on machines that don’t use voter-verified paper ballots. Republicans often talk big on election integrity but don’t walk the walk.

S1 prohibits a state from imposing restrictions on an individual’s ability to vote by mail. Texas already restricts vote by mail to voters over 65 and the disabled, in the last legislative session they tried to add a requirement that mail ballot voters provide proof of disability such as a doctor’s note and they’ll probably try again next week when the special session starts as voter suppression is one of the topics Gov. Abbott has called the session to address. 7 states, including heavily Republican Utah, offer all mail voting and people really like it. California also offers it as an option and last year over 85% of presidential election voters there used mail ballots.

S1 ensures equitable and efficient operation of polling places, reducing long lines and wait times for voters. In many areas of the country Republican election officials cause long lines and multi-hour wait times in minority voting precincts by providing too few voting machines while having an abundance in largely white precincts. Cornyn and Cruz voted against addressing this problem.

Our form of government works best when more people participate and feel like their voices are heard. Republicans apparently prefer low voter turnout believing that increases their chances of winning. The shameful behavior of senators Cornyn and Cruz is in line with Republicans across the south and especially here in Texas. They don’t care if government works as long as they retain power.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - June 30, 2021

Reasons for Cheer and Caution

Today a new president will take the oath of office, one who doesn’t utter lies in every other sentence, one who is competent, one who respects his oath and the democratic principles and institutions of this nation. Today we reason to look forward to a brighter future.

While I’m certain that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris will be sworn in today I’m less certain that it will go forward without interruption and perhaps violence. Trump cultists have not given up and the FBI has warned of the potential for an even larger attack on our democracy today. We can hope they are as incompetent as the outgoing president and the January 6^th insurrectionists.

25,000 national guard troops have been called up to protect the inauguration and the FBI is reportedly vetting every one of those troops. There is cause for concern of an attack from the inside because while those troops have sworn to protect and defend the constitution, January 6^th showed that some, like Retired Lt. Colonel Larry Rendall Brock Jr. of Texas, were willing to violate those oaths. Dozens of law enforcement officers from around the country including some in San Antonio and Houston are also under investigation as well. The insurrectionists came within a handful of minutes of taking members of congress hostage. What would have happened to our nation had they been a little quicker?

We are in the midst of a critical time in this nation’s history and our form of government has been put at risk by Republicans including Ted Cruz and other members of the Texas congressional delegation who incited the insurrection and continue to spread lies. The failure of the January 6 assault on the capitol hasn’t stopped Cruz and others from fanning the flames of discontent. Neighbors and relatives of mine still believe the election was stolen even after Republicans in charge of elections in disputed states have insisted that there was no appreciable fraud committed in the election. After Twitter banned Trump, there was a 73% reduction in election misinformation spread on the Internet in a single week.

Unfortunately it isn’t just national figures inciting insurrection, prominent Republicans here in Guadalupe County have made chilling remarks in their social media such as “Mitt Romney needs to be introduced to Mr. Guillotine”. These folks aren’t just sore losers grumbling in their beer. Our community must stand up to them and refuse to allow them to sow discontent and threaten violence to get there way. Not doing so simply sets the stage for future insurrection, perhaps planned and implemented by more competent demagogues who will succeed.

The disgraceful spreaders of conspiracy theories and lies about the validity of elections, from Trump to Ted Cruz to our local leaders must not be allowed influence in the public sphere. Those who have been elected must be unseated in the next election. Those who are seen by neighbors and peers as community leaders must be shamed and their opportunities to spread their seditious speech limited. They must not be invited to speak to groups or have their writings published. Remember censorship is when the government prevents someone from speaking their mind, it is good judgement when community members choose not to provide a bully pulpit for those who would overthrow the legitimately elected government.

Republicans Are Responsible For Insurrection

The insurrection at the nation’s capitol a week ago has brought out a wide range of responses from conservatives but very few have acknowledged a shred of responsibility. YouGov released a survey Thursday last week which found that 45 percent of Republican voters backed the attack on the Capitol building, while 43 percent said they "strongly or somewhat" opposed the protesters' behavior. Six percent of Republicans were unsure while a further 6 percent said they were unaware of the events. The excuses I’ve heard from my neighbors go something like this; violence from any side is unacceptable but I agree with the rioters that the election may have been stolen.

It isn’t just that so many still think the election was stolen, even those that disagree with the violence claim Trump had nothing to do with inspiring they attack. Their denial that he incited the riot and egged the rioters on reminds me of a child denying responsibility for breaking the cookie jar while their hand and face are smeared in cookie crumbs. At the same time they’re blaming Facebook, Twitter, and Google for “censoring” content when it violates their terms of service. It’s only been since the election that the tech giants have begun to at least mark some of Trump’s claims as questionable let alone fact check or block them.

Texas Republicans, like Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Louis Gohmert, were among those who inspired the insurrection in the weeks leading up to it. They and other Republican leaders continue to make public claims of vote rigging without ever presenting any evidence but when lawsuits are filed the only claims are spurious and have nothing to do with the actual validity of the election and are thrown out of court often by Republican and even Trump appointed judges. Not even one of the nine Supreme Court justices where Republicans hold a six to three majority, three of whom are Trump appointees, couldn’t bring themselves to give credence to the falsehoods.

In most cases the claims made Trump’s supporters have been debunked entirely and on the few occasions where there was a shred of truth like the claim that military mail ballots had been thrown out it was thousands or even hundreds, it was three and they were found and counted before the election results were announced. In a case where supporters claimed of dead people voted the nearest they got was one 90+ year old widow of the deceased. The claim was that James Blalock, a deceased WWII vet and retired mailman, voted in the presidential election when in fact his wife who is registered to vote as Mrs. James Blalock is the person in whose name the vote was cast. Some 60 lawsuits have be brought by Trump’s supporters and in every case they’ve been thrown out of court because their claims are either unfounded, spurious, or even if true would affect so few votes as to have no effect on the result.

I’m disgusted and disappointed with many of my neighbors as they claim to want to work with the other side but are unwilling to accept that they and their fellow travelers are the ones causing the division by failing to challenge the falsehoods and their lying leaders.

I’ve begun to have a new appreciation for how Germany fell under the sway of Hitler and the Nazi’s and it isn’t comforting at all.

Honesty and Transparency Demand Witnesses

I think it’s fair to say that most Americans believe that no one should be above the law and the overwhelming majority of us think justice is best served by a fair trial. It is generally accepted that a fair trial requires the ability of both sides to call witnesses and that evidence be presented such as documents that may be in the hands of the person on trial. That standard we held to in the Senate trial of President Bill Clinton and should apply to the Senate trial of President Donald J. Trump.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, aided and abetted by his second in command our own Senator John Cornyn, has made it clear that he wants to avoid hearing from witnesses and the presentation of documents. Since Trump withheld thousands of documents requested by the House impeachment inquiry team and instructed White House staff to ignore subpoenas the trial in the Senate is last chance the American people will get to find out all the details regarding the administration withholding congressionally approved funds for the defense of Ukraine.

In their efforts to provide cover for Trump, Republicans have claimed that all the witnesses in the impeachment inquiry were second and third hand witnesses. Now that the Senate is about to take up the case all indications so far are that will turn their backs on the opportunity to call first hand witnesses like former National Security Advisor John Bolton and Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney among others. Sunday morning on Face the Nation Senator Cornyn was asked directly about this and he just dodged the issue claiming that the House shouldn’t have voted to impeach without all the necessary evidence. Cornyn’s claim relates directly to one of the articles of impeachment, abuse of power, since Trump refused to produce the documents and demanded that administration members not testify. Senator Cornyn’s circular argument shows the blatant dishonesty congressional Republicans have indulged in for months isn’t going to stop anytime soon.

Last week Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administered an oath to all 100 senators which says in part "that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump, president of the United States, now pending, I will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and laws, so help me God." Given that Mitch McConnell stated weeks ago that he is coordinating with Trump on how the Senate will handle the trial it’s hard to imagine him acting impartially when it comes time to vote.

The American people deserve honesty from their elected officials that means a thorough hearing of all the evidence including that which has previously been withheld and the testimony of administration witnesses that have so far refused to testify anything less is a cover-up and we shouldn’t stand for that. It’s going to take our senators to vote for both of them and which means it’s going to take you to demand it of them. Call our senators this week and tell them you expect to hear John Bolton, Mick Mulvaney and others testify in the senate trial. Senator Cornyn’s office number is (202) 224-2934, Senator Cruz’s office number is (202) 224-5922.

Looking Forward In The New Year

This is the time of year when you’ll see a lot of year in review articles but I prefer to look forward so let’s look at some important issues our nation will be addressing very soon and what we can do about them. Next week our members of congress will be back in their Washington, D.C. offices and Donald Trump’s potential trial in the Senate looms large now that the House has voted to impeach him. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has so far withheld the articles of impeachment from the Senate because the Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, who controls the agenda there has suggested that he might not allow witness testimony or demand documents from the Trump administration. The American people deserve a thorough trial based on the facts and that can only happen if witnesses to the actions of the president and his appointees are required to testify publicly. Of course, no trial would be complete without documentary evidence from the White House.

Since one of our senators, John Cornyn, is the second most powerful Republican we, the citizens of Texas, have an opportunity and a duty to try to persuade him to demand that witnesses like former member of the National Security Council John Bolton and Acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney be called and documents provided so that the American people are assured of a fair trial. It doesn’t hurt that Cornyn is up for re-election and that Texas has become more competitive since Trump became president so our senator is likely to consider how his behavior is viewed by voters more than he might in other years. You can make your views known to Senator Cornyn by calling his San Antonio office at (210) 224-7485. While you’re at it take another moment to call our other senator, Ted Cruz, with a similar message, his office number is (210) 340-2885.

The next big event this year is the March 3^rd primary election where Democrats and Republicans will have the opportunity to choose their candidates for offices from president down to county commissioner. In Guadalupe County the only state offices with a Democratic primary are for seats on the Fourth Court of Appeal and there are no county offices being contested at all. There are 17 names on the Democratic presidential primary ballot though only 15 are running nationwide campaigns and of those only 8 seem to have any real chance of earning the right to run in the November general election. Those that appear to be competitive are Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Andrew Yang, Amy Klobuchar, Mike Bloomberg, Cory Booker, and Pete Buttigieg. Early voting in Texas starts February 18 so it’s not too early to start investigating who you’ll want to vote for if you haven’t already started or made up your mind.

The Democratic primary for U.S. Senate is also a hotly contested race with 12 candidates and deserves your close attention as well since Beto O’Rourke’s close loss in 2018 shows that Texas is truly a competitive state. There is a very real chance our primary winner could end up as our next U.S. Senator. Of the 12 only 5 appear to have garnered enough financial support to run professional campaigns statewide. M. J. Hegar, Chris Bell, Amanda Edwards, Royce West, and Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez have all visited in Guadalupe County or nearby. It’s time to do your research on them as well.

Tomorrow morning take 5 minutes and call our senators and let them know you expect them to serve our nation over their party, it’s important.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 1, 2020

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

Trump Takes Overtime Away

This week 100,000 Americans lost the right to overtime pay and what’s worse is that they are just the tip of the iceberg. Monday’s Supreme Court decision in the case Encino Motorcars v. Navarro was all about whether or not service advisors at auto dealerships are exempt from overtime provisions in the Fair Labor Standards Act which was originally passed in the 1930’s. The result was disappointing though unsurprising as the Supreme Court had ruled much the same way two years ago when sending the same case back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals with orders to rethink their prior decision in favor of the service advisors.

The five conservatives on the court claim that “if you ask the average customer who services his car, the primary, and perhaps only, person he is likely to identify is his service advisor.” The four liberals disagree, and I’ve got to say while I’ve never spoken to a mechanic at any dealer where I’ve had my car repaired I know darn well that the service advisor isn’t the one doing the work if for no other reason than they’re sitting in an air conditioned room talking to customers like the receptionist at the doctor’s office. I’ll bet you’re not fooled for a minute either.

While it’s frustrating that anyone loses their right to overtime pay you might think, “well it’s only service advisors at auto dealerships so this is a really limited issue”, but you’d be wrong. You see when Justice Clarence Thomas wrote the decision he made a point of also declaring that prior decisions which were based on narrow interpretations of exemptions to requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act were also wrong. This means that a lot more people stand to lose not only overtime protections but any number of other protections of the law. Experts believe that we’ll be seeing new court cases over employers seeking to cut their employees pay, benefits, and other protections of the law for years to come.

When we elect a president we aren’t just getting that one person or just their ideas and actions, we’re getting a whole list of appointees both in the cabinet and in the courts. When we elect members of Congress we aren’t just getting one person to act on our behalf, we’re getting the entire party they belong to for good or ill. In this case Ted Cruz and John Cornyn are just as responsible for taking away overtime protection from the service advisors and others who will lose those and other benefits in the coming years as Donald Trump. They were active participants in stealing the Supreme Court seat that allowed Trump to appoint Neil Gorsuch when they withheld hearings on President Obama’s nominee claiming that a year was too close to an election to name a new Supreme Court Justice.

The next time a friend or family member tells you they aren’t political so they don’t vote or that it doesn’t matter who is elected, remind them that overtime, family leave, sick pay and any number of other benefits they take for granted can be taken away due to who gets elected. In November Texans have an opportunity to forcibly retire Ted Cruz by electing Beto O’Rourke to the United States Senate. That will go a long way toward stopping further Trump appointees who would stand for corporations and billionaires at the expense of every day working people like you and me.

I wonder how many service advisors are rethinking their vote for Trump now.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - May 6, 2018

Five Great Reasons to Vote in the Primary

As of the end of early voting more Democrats than Republicans had voted in the primary in the 15 largest counties and that’s unusual. It’s a sign of Democratic voter enthusiasm that follows trends set in special elections across the country over the last 12 months. The Democratic wave that is building across the country has the potential to remake the House of Representatives and the Senate but that won’t happen if Texans don’t get out and vote.

There are important races in this primary which will determine who challenges Republican incumbents like the governor and US Senate. In the U.S. Senate race Texas Democrats have a terrific opportunity with Congressman Beto O’Rourke from El Paso. It’s important to vote in this race because in the past unknowns with no political experience, no support, and no campaign have won primaries against candidates like O’Rourke leaving Democrats with non-viable candidates in November.

A few years after O’Rourke graduated from college he moved back to El Paso and started a small tech company which soon became successful. O’Rourke also became deeply involved in the civic, business and community efforts in El Paso. He ran for El Paso City Council in 2005 and served for two terms before running for U.S. Congress in 2012, taking on an eight-term incumbent and winning. He knocked on thousands of doors and had real conversations, face-to-face, with the voters in El Paso. In Congress, O’Rourke serves on the House Committees for Armed Services and Veterans Affairs.

Mike Collier has been building his campaign for Lt. Governor for nearly 3 years and has developed name recognition across the electorate. Collier is a career accountant who has worked for some of the largest companies in the world and helped build a successful Texas oil company while serving as its Chief Financial Officer. Collier built a reputation for rigorous financial analysis, independent decision-making, and a commitment to telling the truth, no matter what. If we’re going to hold politicians accountable, that’s exactly what Texas needs right now. He hopes to challenge Dan Patrick in November and is one of the statewide candidates that actually stands a chance to win.

Joi Chevalier is running for Comptroller. Chevalier is an entrepeneur whose experience in corporate planning and product development could provide valuable prep for the job of a state comptroller, a position that serves as Texas’ chief financial officer and revenue forecaster. Chevalier has an impressive understanding of the state’s challenges. She’s endorsed by Progress Texas and she speaks regularly on entrepreneurship, food and tech, product management, and the opportunity for women and African-Americans in technology and through food entrepreneurship.

Miguel Suazo is running for Land Commissioner. Suazo is an energy and natural resources attorney with a decade of experience in energy, natural resources, government, and business. When I met Suazo a few weeks ago, he told me he's running for this office because he's incensed at the poor job George P. Bush has done handling of the hurricane recovery efforts along the Texas Gulf Coast.

Steve Kling is running for Senate District 25. He’s a former Army Captain decorated for his service in Afghanistan and Iraq who now works in the tech industry. One of Kling’s top issues is public education and he summarizes his views this way; “Meaningful finance reform only will occur when we reduce the dependence on our local school property taxes, streamline the host of unfunded mandates for teachers and districts, eliminate high-stakes consequences for students and provide support for a well-rounded education for all Texas students.”

You can vote today or Tuesday, make your voice heard.

Are We Terrorists or Christians?

In 2001 the entire country was up in arms after the attack on 9/11 that killed nearly 3,000 Americans. Thousands of people, rich and poor, teenagers and 30 somethings volunteered to join our military and risk their lives in order to take the battle to the terrorists.

This week the Congressional Budget Office reported that the Senate healthcare bill will cause 22 million Americans to lose their health insurance. We know from studies done after the release of the similar House bill which causes 23 million to lose their insurance that between 10,000 and 30,000 of those folks will then die unnecessarily.

Even taking the low number that’s more than three times as many people dying every year than who died in the 9/11 attack. We went to war over that attack. We spent trillions of dollars to fight that war on the basis of preventing another attack. Yet now, 16 years later, our elected leaders are willing to allow 10,000 mostly poor people to die every year in order to give rich people a tax break. Not only that but thousands more will go bankrupt, losing their homes and everything they’ve ever worked for.

How are we any better than the terrorists if we lie down and take it when the Donald Trump and his Republican enablers in Congress deny children healthcare simply because their parents are too poor to pay for it? How are we better than the terrorists if we accept that grandmothers will be turned out of the nursing homes that provide the medical care they need because their families don’t have the resources to pay for it? How are we any better than the terrorists if we continue to allow sick people to suffer and die to save a few dollars on our taxes?

I frequently hear claims that this is a Christian nation most often by some Republican elected official. If you believe that, how to you reconcile that with denying hardworking people and their families life saving healthcare? I can’t make that connection because the nuns who taught me at St. Lawrence the Martyr and the brothers who taught me at Archbishop Rummel made it very clear that “when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!"

The majority of Americans don’t want what John Cornyn wants to pass of on us. We disagree with Ted Cruz that the bill isn’t tough enough. Most Americans want something better than the Affordable Care Act not something worse. There is a better replacement available that most Americans do support. The replacement is called Medicare for All, or single payer. Medicare could be everyone’s health insurance plan whether a new born or a great-grandmother, sick or healthy, rich or poor. It wouldn’t matter if got cancer after the company you worked for went out of business or moved the factory to China because your health insurance wouldn’t be attached to your employer. You’d never be in the situation where you or your child got sick when you didn’t have insurance.

If America is really a Christian nation shouldn’t we start acting like one?

Republicans Push Confirmations Before Due Diligence

Almost two weeks ago Republicans in Congress voted to gut the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) by taking away both power and independence from the investigative body, and give lawmakers more control over internal inquiries. The mission of the bi-partisan OCE is "to assist the House in upholding high standards of ethical conduct for its Members, officers, and staff and, in so doing, to serve the American people". In the last term it investigated 16 members of Congress, three of them from Texas. The House Republican Conference thought they’d pull the wool over the eyes of the American people by holding the vote late in the day without warning and without discussion.

The vote made headlines the next day and by the time new members of the House had been sworn in and Speaker Ryan called the House to order thousands of Americans both Republican and Democrat had called their representatives to express their disgust and demand that the move be withdrawn. The Republicans heard the people and in a victory for both transparency and democracy relented. This victory belongs to you my fellow citizens.

Now Republicans in the Senate, led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are attempting to sidestep normal procedures on confirming cabinet nominations by holding hearings and votes before the nominees have even filed their financial and employment disclosure forms with the Office of Government Ethics as required by legislation passed in 1978. Review of those documents usually takes a few weeks, not a few days so there should be no hurry to vote on these nominees. That’s not stopping Senate Republicans who are rushing to pass them through, which makes me wonder what they’re hoping to hide from the American people.

Secretary of Education nominee and billionaire, Betsy DeVos is just one of the four nominees who hasn’t filed disclosure forms and she has financial entanglements akin to those of Donald Trump so there is plenty of room for conflicts of interest that the vetting procedures of the Office of Government Ethics are designed to discover and help resolve. DeVos and others whose ethics reviews aren’t complete should not be voted on because we “the people” have the right to expect our government officials will not use public office to line their private pockets.

The success of phone calls by people like you and me in stopping House Republicans from shutting down the watchdogs at the Office of Congressional Ethics should embolden everyone reading this to call Senators Cornyn and Cruz at their San Antonio offices to demand that no votes on Trump’s nominees be held until a thorough review of their ethics disclosures has been performed. You can call Sen. Cornyn at 210-224-7485 and Sen. Cruz at 210-340-2885.

Keep those phone numbers handy as it’s a sure thing we’ll all have many reasons to call them over the next four years.

Published in the Seguin Gazette January 13, 2017