The Idiot Factor: Corruption Folly

We can see once again how freedom of speech doesn’t work well in a society where our employers have so much power over us. They can fire us for any reason or no reason at all, at least in most states. The following is about a man who was fired for an anti-Donald Trump tweet. The twee criticized the widow of a Navy SEAL. His criticism is that she allowed Trump to use her for his own political agenda. It was legitimate criticism. The man’s father refused to let Trump use him that way. So conservative were outraged, probably because he dared to criticize the US military. And as conservatives are known to do, they probably sought out his employer, because getting people fired for their opinions is what conservatives do. According to the article one conservative said: "I really want to ruin this guy’s life over what he said. Does this make me THE LIBERAL now?” Of course most of us realize it takes a conservative to cost someone their job over an opinion.
Unlike many states, such as Kansas, where I live, he may be able to sue his employers, Liberty Advisor Group, because of the Illinois' Right to Privacy in the Workplace Act. Illinois actually has a law to protect people from being fired over something they did in their off hours in their own time. That is the only way people in this country can actually have freedom of speech. If we can be fired for our opinions then we really don’t have freedom of speech. –SJ Otto

Here is the article from MSN.com:

Another day, another tweet that cost someone their job.

Before President Donald Trump gave his speech to Congress Tuesday, Chicagoan Daniel Grilo had a job at a financial firm. The next day, he didn't.

During the speech, Grilo, at the time a principal at Liberty Advisor Group, tweeted, "Sorry Owens' wife, you're not helping yourself or your husband's memory by standing there and clapping like an idiot. Trump just used you."

Grilo was referring to Carryn Owens, whose husband, Navy SEAL William "Ryan" Owens, was killed during a January raid that targeted an al-Qaida stronghold in Yemen. Owens attended the president's speech and cried as Trump acknowledged her and the audience applauded.

The tweet sparked a firestorm not only on Twitter, but on several social networks including 4chan and Reddit, shredding Grilo for his comments. "You're disgusting, you don't even deserve to speak to this man who served," wrote @PolitBunny on Twitter. On Reddit, another user named "whywouldyousaythattt" wrote: "I really want to ruin this guy’s life over what he said. Does this make me THE LIBERAL now? ;("

Within a few minutes Grilo responded with an apology, writing, "Folks, clearly a poorly worded tweet. I apologize to all and am deeply moved by all your comments. Thank you for your feedback."

For the rest click here.

From Democracy and Class Struggle:

By SJ Otto

This last Friday, March 10, about 50 people came to see the film "National Bird," a documentary film about the

unmanned drone program. The film was shown at the Peace and Social Justice Center of Central of Kansas, here in Wichita.

The film focuses mostly on a small group of military personnel who took part in the

drone program. That program sends unmanned drone aircraft through parts of the Middle-east and Africa to kill suspected terrorist leaders. The aircraft also kill civilians who are in the way. The film also looked at people who lived in the areas affected by the drones.

The film pointed out that the US Army has a policy of shooting anyone 16 years of age and older who is seen to have a gun. They are considered "likely terrorists." Personnel in the film, interviewed said the people who operate the program get more money and credit for the number of people they kill.

This week, one of the persons from the film, Air Force Veteran Lisa Ling, a former technical sergeant in drone surveillance systems will speak about the drone war, at Hubbard Hall, at WichitaStateUniversityat 7pm, in Room 208, on Friday, March 10.

I had an open letter toThe Wichita Eagle on the drone program and that letter got published in The Wichita Eagle. I got a response to that letter.

I notice this guy ignored important issues and basically said the troops should follow orders and the policies are unimportant. In other words “they are just following orders.” He continued the usual lie that our “troops are defending our freedom.” He also said I belong to a group of people "with a totally unrealistic view of the world we live in today, who disagrees with government policy."

More on this to come.

By SJ Otto

The new Republican plan to repeal and replace (sort of) Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act) mostly includes the same old status quo we had before we had it. It amounts to the same old style of rules that favor wealthy and upper middleclass people, but leave poor people, especially working poor, out in the cold.

The House Republican’s bill keeps rules that would force the insurance companies to maintain coverage for people with pre-existing conditions and allow children to stay on their parents' plans until the age of 26. But it allows insurers to charge higher premiums to those who let their coverage lapse. This gives the insurance companies more power to exclude people from insurance who make mistakes. The Republicans are always trying to help the insurance companies from having to cover people who cost them money.

The measure would offer individuals refundable tax credits to purchase health insurance. They will get rid of all subsidies. That means that most people who get subsidized insurance under Obamacare will eventually be without. Poor people don’t benefit from tax credits.

Those who get medical coverage from Medicaid can forget that. The new plan will restructure the country's Medicaid program so that states receive a set amount of money from the federal government every year –and according to CNNexperts warn could result in millions of people losing access to insurance they received now under Obamacare.

Many of the poorer constituents of Republicans have been making it out to town hall meetings. Many of these constituents have told these Republicans that they fear they will lose badly needed health insurance and die without Obamacare. These Republicans have mostly ignored these people, claiming they are all just “professional protesters for the Democrats.”

According to Heather Higgins, of The Hill, a conservative blog:

“Shortly after Donald Trump won the presidency, an Alinskite training manual in disruption started circulating for activists on the left, put out by President Obama’s Organize For Action partner “Indivisible.”

It instructs activists to infiltrate town halls or any public event as mere constituents, without any evidence that they are protestors, to take seats largely at the front of the room but also to spread out singly and in pairs to create the illusion of mass opposition. They are encouraged to ask deliberately hostile questions, not relinquish the microphone, and to be loud in condemning the GOP congressmen.”

Were ever she got this training Manuel, she is sadly mistaken if she and the other Republicans seriously believe that poor people are so stupid they don’t care if they die from lack of health care and the only people who do care are the “Obama’s Organize For Action” crew. This is delusional thinking.

We can take note that our representatives from Kansas have all avoided any kind of town hall meeting. They all know better. They are cowards and much of their constituents would be surprised if they acted any different. For example Pat Roberts and Jerry Moran are hiding like their life depends on it.

Higgins has a lot of suggestions for those Republicans who believe they should brave their way out and actually do their jobs. He said:

“For example if the topic is health care, go to HealthReformQuestions.com and bring the quiz questions and answers to the meeting to engage the audience with the facts of the issue. Remind them that twice as many Americans report being hurt by Obamacare, rather than helped by it.”

And we need to point at that the people hurt from Obamacare are mostly upper middleclass people and small business people that have had higher premiums and other inconveniences. That as opposed to the poor working people who will now die early from lack of healthcare.

When it comes to poor people’s lives—the Republicans DON’T CARE.

Pix by Education Reform Now.

From The Nation:

In her recent op-ed for Elle, Sady Doyle asks the important question, “What does it mean for women to go on strike in 2017?” She argues that because increasing inequality among women since the 1970s has given certain women better access to education and job security, participation in a women’s strike is a privilege as opposed to a coherent political project. In the 1970s, she argues, secretaries and housewives could unite around a common project of making their care work visible. Now that the doors to traditionally male jobs have been opened to women, Doyle calls for a kind of guilty, stagnant solidarity of intention, aptly summarized by the title; “Go Ahead and Strike, but Know That Many of Your Sisters Can’t.”

(Is it possible for feminism to be too inclusive?)

To what extent is the present call for a Women’s Strike on March 8 actually a less coherent project than its 1970s counterpart, or any previous women’s strikes? Our present situation is in some ways closer to the situation in 1908, when the first women’s strikes were led by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union. Unions were virtually nonexistent then, to say nothing of the brutal working conditions that resulted from their absence (146 people, mostly women, died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911). Union membership today is at a historic low (10.7 percent and decreasing in 2016). Was it a privilege for garment workers to strike then? Would it be a privilege for us to strike now?

For the rest click here.

Pix by Chess.com.

Friday, March 10, 7:00 pm
Hubbard Hall, Rm 208, Wichita State University

In March Wichita will get to learn about the US Drone War from Air Force veteran Lisa Ling, who is a former technical sergeant on drone surveillance systems. In the new film National Bird she shows a commendation she received for helping identify over 121,000 “insurgent targets” over a two-year period, as part of military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. “That is 121,000 lives affected by technology that we control. How many years have we been at war now?”
Breaking the silence around this controversial form of military intervention, drone program personnel have been sharing their insight and experience working within this program. As one has said, "We wanted to bring transparency into this very secret program because the public doesn't know enough about it."

Sunday, March 12, 7:00 - 9:00 pm
WSU Hughes Metroplex
Room 132, Enter Door C, East Side of the Metroplex.
Reception at 6:30. Free and open to the public.

Dr. Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Dr. Dunbar-Ortiz grew up in rural Central Oklahoma and received her BA in History from San Francisco State University and the Ph.D. in History from UCLA. She is author or editor of twelve books. She took a position teaching in a newly established Native American Studies program at California State University at Hayward, near San Francisco, and helped develop the Department of Ethnic Studies, as well as Women's Studies. In 1974, she became active in the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the International Indian Treaty Council, beginning a lifelong commitment to international human rights.

Her first published book, The Great Sioux Nation: An Oral History of the Sioux Nation and its Struggle for Sovereignty, was published in 1977 and was presented as the fundamental document at the first international conference on Indians of the Americas, held at United Nations' headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

Sponsored by Global Learning Center
Lecture Co-Sponsors: Friends, Newman, WSU Departments of Anthropology, History, Women’s Studies, WSU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
Questions: dorothy.billings@wichita.edu

By SJ Otto

Lisa Ling used to operate those unmanned drones the US Army uses for assassinations in parts of the Middle east and Africa. Today she travels the country to tell people why the US Army should stop doing that. She spoke at WichitaStateUniversity, last Friday Night, for a crowd of between 25 to 30 people. Ling is interviewed for the National Bird,a documentary on military drones shown here in Wichita a week before.

"You can't understand a culture from a two dimensional view,” Ling told the audience. “A lot of people call them terrorists. They are people. They are human beings.”

She was referring to the computer screen the drone operators are looking at when they look for their targets and the people they see on those screens.

The program has soldiers using computers and equipment to send these un-manned flying machines around the globe to assassinate suspectedparamilitary "terrorist" leaders and operatives, with explosives. once leaders are found to be hiding out somewhere, the drones fly in when they least expect it. At times they kill family members, including children and people who just happen to be near the targets.

“This is America's longest conflict,” Ling said. She added that the drones are being used in countries we are not at war with such as

Yemen

“Congress hasn’t declared war since World War II,” Ling said. “They don't even call it war. They use words like “conflict.” They use the term “Eminent Danger." They call it "acquiring targets" and they are hunting humans.”

Ling explained through the night that targets are picked with little if any intelligence gathering. She said the program started out using the drones as intelligence gathering.

"Once they put bombs on those frames it changed everything, she said.

She added there have been 121,000 attacks on people by drones. After they believe they have hit a target, they send a drone in the area to look and see how many pieces are left from the person after the explosion. Then they try to figure out who they hit from the pieces.

"I thought I would be protecting people on both sides,” she told us. “How do you wrap your mind around not seeing what you do?”

Ling told the audience that she believed the drone program is a form of terrorism. She said they hover around for days or weeks before they go for their target. The people they target often know they are being stalked. At times she said some people brought their children out so the drone pilot would see they are family people and hoped they would not be considered military targets. But that didn't help them.

"They don't attack us because they hate our freedom," she said, taking lines from Former President George W. Bush.[1]"They attack us because we attack them."

Ling said she would prefer boots on the ground rather than these hi-tec killing machines.

“If there is a war it is better to show up for it and be physically there,” She said.

She pointed out that here is no debate going on this kind of war. There is no national conversation. Democrats are as supportive of the drone program as Republicans. The media does not do a good job of bringing any real debate on the drone program. She said it is hard to pin down who actually authorized the drone program.

"Congress pays for it," she added.

During questions and answers Ling told a person in the audience that military drones and those used for commercial or personal use are completely different.

"Am I with those people who stand in front of the bases and protest?" she said. "NO! All that does is push the operators to suicide (and other problems). The drone programming is getting bigger and standing in front of bases isn't helping. You need to target people who make money off the drones. Not the privates."

She said political pressure needs to be applied to politicians and any corporation that is profiting off of the drone program.

The Kansas Peace and Social Justice Center sponsored Ling's appearance. The Peace and Social JusticeCenteris focusing on the use of military drones this coming year. Ling is touring across the country to get her message out.

[1]"They hate what they see right here in this chamber: a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other." - George W. Bush.

Saint Patrick was just a missionary. He probably did little to improve the lives of the Irish and instead came to the island to fill people up with mysticism. He never drove out the snakes because there never were any to begin with.

Many of us celebrate this day because we are all or part Irish. Some of us support Irish nationalism and the Irish cause, with the symbol of the Starry Plough.

For many people this holiday is just an excuse to get drunk. Maybe that is OK too. Don't forget to drink an Irish Car Bomb, an Irish Stout or (yuck) green beer.

-SJ Otto

The Starry Plough- a symbol of Irish nationalism.

The following article is from the Chicago Tribune. This is a good example of the problems caused when right-wing Christians get a chance to stack the court deck full of laws that are strictly intended as harassment to women who want abortions. They want harassment and that is what these laws get them. -SJ Otto

By Robin Utz

My husband and I desperately wanted to have a baby. We looked extensively into adoption and tried to get pregnant for four years with the help of fertility specialists — enduring two in-vitro procedures and multiple failed embryo transfers. We were thrilled when our most recent in-vitro fertilization proved successful.

Unfortunately, we discovered after my 21-week anatomy scan that our daughter — Grace Pearl — had bilateral multicystic dysplastic kidney disease. Her kidneys were not functioning, she had no amniotic fluid and her lungs would never develop properly. Three doctors told us our daughter's condition was 100 percent fatal due to the early onset of her disease. She would either be stillborn or would not survive long after birth. My own risk would increase sevenfold if I continued to carry her.

We made the excruciating decision to terminate the pregnancy at 21 weeks and five days — nearly six months. We did this out of love: Terminating was the least painful and most humane thing we could do for her. We did all we could to take on the physical and emotional suffering ourselves, instead of allowing her to feel it. The physician cut her umbilical cord prior to the termination to ensure that her heart would stop beating and that she'd have as peaceful of an experience as possible. Her pathology report confirmed the doctors' fatal diagnosis.

But the process to get that abortion in Missouri — the state where we live — was one of the most callous and insulting experiences we have ever endured.

My husband and I had to wait 72 hours after consenting to the abortion so we could "consider what we were doing." I had to sign a statement affirming that I heard my baby's heartbeat (a sound that brought tears of joy to my eyes when I first heard it) and that I saw an ultrasound (I had asked for more than what is routinely provided to reassure myself, having experienced a miscarriage in the past). We were given a packet explaining that we were terminating “the life of a separate, unique, living human being.” There are no exceptions to these protocols, even for people terminating for fetal anomaly.

For the rest click here.

By SJ Otto

I remember when I was a kid, maybe 9 years old, I lived in St. Louis, MO.Most of the small creeks I lived by were open sewers. I remember being taken to a beautiful park, back in those days, for a picnic with my family. I remember walking through a path that went past a large creek. The creek went over the path and from there went to several deep pools. Some were between three to four feet deep. I looked down deep in the water and it had a gray tint to it. There were no fish in it. It had no tadpoles or crawdads. Those are found in most healthy streams. This stream had nothing living in it, except some frogs along the shore. The water smelled like sewage.

This was common back then. There was a creek down the street from me. We found minnows and crawdads in that stream. We enjoyed going long that creek to find all the animals that lived in it. But there was a sewage treatment plant at one point. after the creek passed that plant it was dead. No minnows or crayfish could be found past that. There were some frogs along the creek. There were snakes along the sides of the stream from time to time and some large rats. There were blood worms in the creek. Tiny red worms that looked like threads. They seem to be able to tolerate the low level of oxygen in that stream. The water always had a gray tint and there was often that ugly clump of bubbles found in dirty streams. I like to swim in streams. But I would never swim in one that had no fish in it.

By the time I left St. Louisfor Wichita, in 1969, they had just put in a new sewer line along the creek by my house and the pollution went away. Then I started to notice fish returning and the stream was alive again.

My point to all of this is that I have no desire to go back to the bad old days when our water ways were nothing but open sewers. We have a lot of politicians calling for an end to the Environmental Protection Agency. Many of their supporters are calling for this also. When I think back to the wasted environment I had to endure as a child, I can't image anyone wanting to return to that. And that is what we will have if this country goes backwards and starts to chip away at our environmental protections. Before that we had rivers in the east were completely dead. Their water was often a horrible pee green color or had water that looked like red paint. This kind of half hazard treatment of out lands and waters should be a thing of the past. We should never want to see that kind of industrial abuse ever again. And yet we have given our government in Washingtonover to such men as Donald Trump, who sees our environment as some kind of impediment to business. We can make money in many ways. But it is really hard to replace the natural world once we have killed it off.

Pix by LinkedIn, now8news.com, Pammy's World.

Mary McDonough Harren has died yesterday. In KS, she was about the first person I met here in Wichita when I became politically active. I will miss her a lot and I know a lot of my friends will miss her. She was a major political peace activist and a firm anti-imperialist. I will be posting a full biography and obit later this week. -SJ Otto

From Julie A. Burkhart, Trust Women Foundation:

The Oklahoma House passed HB 1549, which would prohibit a physician from performing an abortion solely because of a fetal anomaly, this week.

Like all of the patients at Trust Women South Wind Women's Center clinics, women and their families facing a fetal indication are simply trying to make the best decision they can. This is not an area the government should have a hand in. Such difficult decisions should be made by women and their families in consultation with their physicians. And physicians should not face revocation of their medical license for providing health care. I know you agree.

Trust Women is working hard to try to keep this bill from becoming law. You can read the bill by clicking here.

You can help by making a contribution of $15 or $49. We have boots on the ground working at the capitol in Oklahoma City, and we are doing everything we can to protect women's rights and to oppose this unconstitutional bill.

If you live in Oklahoma, you can help by calling your senator and asking them to vote in opposition to HB 1549.

Your support, as always, makes our work possible, and I appreciate you so much.

My best,

Julie

Trust Women Foundation
5107 E. Kellogg Drive
Wichita, KS. 67218

Trust Women South Wind Women's Center
1240 S.W. 44th St.
Oklahoma City, OK. 73109

Some deformities prevent any real chance at life at all. Pix from Genetic and Nongenetic Causes of Pregnancy Loss | GLO.

By SJ Otto

I first moved to Wichita sometime in 1980. One of the fist political activists I met was Mary (McDonough) Harren. She was the go to person involved in the local peace movement here in Wichita. Back in Lawrence where I came from, the big issue was the war in Latin America, supporting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and opposing military aid to the government of El Salvador. Mary was involved in that also. She was involved in other issues, such as the movement for a nuclear freeze. We lost Mary last week to cancer. She was 91 years old. She lived a full life and was a major player in the anti-war, anti-imperialism movements.

She was arrested several times for trespassing with people who were using civil disobedience against nuclear weapons. She was arrested in August of 1982 at Offutt Air Force Base, near Omaha.

She was a member of Democratic Socialists of America. She believed in socialism and a world where the needs of the common people were not more important than the needs of the greedy wealthy people who profited from making and selling weapons.

“The peace movement,” she said, “is holding out a vision, a hope of a better world for human kind, other than spending your life building arms, that this is not the most creative thing, that this is not what were meant to be doing with our lives, is to defend private or personal property at the expense of the rest of the world.”[1]

Mary and I have worked off and on with the peace group here in town (Wichita). The name has changed many times, but she stayed with it and so did I. Today we have the Peace and Social Justice Center of Kansas. I remember when they added on "social justice", several years ago, so we could work on some local social justice issues. Today’s Wichita peace group is located in the house that used to be Mary's.

I used to visit that house when Mary lived there. Her, other friends and I would visit, drink wine and discuss foreign policy issues. Even before she turned it over the Peace and Social Justice Center, she had many political events there.

When I first met Mary, both of us were Catholics. At some point I got tired of the Catholic political shtick. Both of us had problems with many of the church’s positions, such as being anti-abortion and the churches’ position on Sandinista Revolution in Nicaragua. Eventually John Paul II came out strongly against Liberation theology, which both of us supported. I finally had enough and dropped out of the religion. She stayed in and refused to give her faith up.

She stood by her catholic beliefs, even when the local church did everything they could to dissuade her. The local Bishop of Wichita excommunicated her for supporting abortion rights. She was a member of Catholics for Choice.

She once told me "What are they going to do? Arrest me for going to church?"

Mary has been politically active going all the way back to the Vietnam War. Other issues she has taken on include speaking out about the use of the atom bomb in Hiroshima. Over the years she has worked with The Catholic Worker,Pax Christi,Women's International League for Peace and Freedom and Code Pink. Mary raised seven kids and her husband Donald Harren died before I moved back to Wichita, in 1980.

Mary slowed down a lot as she got to her 80s and beyond. Still, she was always a part of the peace movement here in the Wichita area. She will be missed.

Mary accepting a reward from the Global Learning Center.

Pix by//www.globallearningcenterwichita.org/

[1]Bill Hursch, “Wichita Woman Wages Own War To Ensure Peace,” The Wichita Eagle, February 1, 1983.

By SJ Otto

The Wichita State University Student Government Association, the elected student body, has delivered a vote of “no confidence” to the school’s President, John Bardo. This vote passed by a 20-4-7 vote, according to The Sunflower, WSU’s student newspaper.

The resolution defines a vote of no confidence as “A motion made when most of the members of a parliament or other organization say that they feel that their leader is no longer competent to lead.”

The reason for this vote includes cases in which reports of rape, domestic violence, and sexual assault were allegedly covered up or ignored by the university, the perceived neglect on the part of the administration regarding issues of black, trans, gay and Muslim students and Bardo and his administration of failing to participate in shared governance of the institution and not providing adequate student representation to decisions for the university.

On the last issue the students cites the issue as an example of the administration placing the will of private business over that of students. The Idiot Factor has reported on the encroachment of business influences and interference, including that from the Koch Brothers, on the WSU campus, citing articles from The Sunflower, most recently with “Koch brothers helped create a “culture of fear” at Wichita State University”.

Evan Pflugradt, Editor-in-Chief of The Sunflower, wrote, “Concerns of outside influence on university decisions threatening the academic freedom and a lack of coordination with student government fed their case.”

This action was promoted by a group known as We The Students. This group recently staged a sit-in outside of Bardo’s office and presented a list of demands. Clearly this was more than just outside influences and business interference. Bardo has shown a lot of insensitivity to the desires and needs of the students. He has also ignored concerns of safety regarding sexual assaults and rape. And he has been negligent of minority needs. In the SGA actual resolution, a lot of statistics were given to show just how badly WSU has neglected the needs of minority students.

Right now there are a lot of factional bickering going on at the WSU campus. Associate VP of Student Affairs Christine Schneikart-Luebbe resigned this week right after the resignation of Eric Maki, director of campus recreation. Student Body Vice President Taben Azad was removed from his role as Election Commissioner.

The WSU administration has taken its students for granted and they are not taking it. The big test is what the University will do in response to the “no confidence” vote. Will they remove Bardo, as they should, or will they just ignore the students and try and sweep this under the rug? I don’t think the students will just sit back and allow him to sweep this issue away.

Pix by The Sunflower.

By SJ Otto

Voting has already started for the April 11 special election to see who will win the seat vacated by Republican Mike Pompeo, the war monger who President Donald Trump chose to run the CIA.

On the Republican side we have Ron Estes, Kansas State Treasurer. Estes is a lack-luster candidate, who has been a Republican flunky of our unpopular governor Sam Brownback for much of the last 20 years. He doesn’t stand out much and is a pretty flimsy candidate. He is not aggressive and he has no real leadership capabilities. But he has one thing going for him that his opponent, James Thompson, doesn’t have. He’s a Republican and he has a lot of Republican money to spend on ads. And that is all he has really done for his campaign. According to the Daily Kos:

“Ron Estes, the Republican opponent and state treasurer has taken the race for granted, assuming he will walk into office with very little contest. Estes is so confident that he’s skipped public forums, refused debates, and ran a campaign that says: “I win by default.”

Thompson, on the other hand, is trying an outreach campaign, hoping to build community support behind his goals, and his campaign believes that those things will pay off in the end.”

Estes knows he will get a lot of votes just because he is a Republican. A lot of Kansas voters refuse to ever vote Democrat. If Estes was a convicted child molester and a convicted heroin dealer, he could still win the election just because he is a Republican.

However Thompson is running a hard campaign and many people believe he can actually win.

"Kansas Democrats have an opportunity here to win for the first time in 23 years now and it feels like from the campaign’s perspective that a lot of the current establishment of the KDP is sitting on the sidelines,"(campaign manager Colin) Curtis told The Wichita Eagle.

Estes is still ahead in the polls.But he is being arrogant and assumes he will just walk right in, since he is the Republican. Thompson is running a serious campaign. At present the polls show him behind by 56 percent to 32.

Again Daily Kos said:

“A veteran, Thompson made inroads in the Democratic convention by putting himself out there as the progressive candidate in the race, touting his Bernie Sanders bonafides. That paid off today, with the endorsement of Our Revolution, who has chosen to back Thompson in his quest to take the seat.”

This will be a tough race to win, but we need to do all we can. Thompson is just now starting to get his commercials out there and that will help. Let’s wipe that smirk off of Estes’ face. Let’s elect Thompson.

“Look at me—I’m a Republican. I gotta win. What ‘er ya gonna do? Vote Democrat?!”Pix by (AP): U.S. Elections - Associated Press.

By សតិវអតុ

I work for the school system here in Wichita. I am a substitute teacher. I don’t have my own class room. And from time to time I take a look at the books that are used to educate our young people here in Kansas. Just the other day I was looking at a history book being used for a class called; History I. The book was called American Anthem, Modern American History.[1] In looking through it I found some items quite biased. The thing that really stuck out in my head was the book’s treatment of the peace movement here in the US. The book had a big chapter on the Vietnam War and it also included a large section on the Vietnam War protests.

Why was that significant? Because later, there is a chapter on the conflicts in El Salvador and Nicaragua with a lot of information on the struggle between then US President Ronald Reagan and the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. It was factual, but one important thing was left out—the US peace movement of THAT time.

I was a member of the peace movement of the 1980s. It may not have been as big as the anti-Vietnam protests, but there were organizations in place and they were substantial.

There was the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador, or CISPES. That group still exists. It was a major organization support the struggle in El Salvador, especially the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN). There were many chapters nation-wide and I had one on the Wichita State University campus. I was even spied on by the FBI for that.

There were also groups to support the Sandinista National Liberation Front in Nicaragua. People across the country supported that revolution and its government. Witness for Peace was just one of such organizations.

I actually went to a major anti-contra aid march in Washington DC. It was a national march, in April 1987, and was the largest march I ever went to in my life. I remember walking in front of the march for a while because there were some celebrities, such as Ed Asner and Jesse Jackson. The March was backed by several unions here in the US although some of the Union leaders tried to dissuade their member from taking part out of their old cold war reactionary beliefs. At one point I trailed back farther in the line of marchers. At one point I climbed up on a light pole and could not believe my eyes. I could not see the front of the line or the back. All I could see was a long trail of marchers in both directions. The march went for blocks. I had never seen such a march. It turns out that the march had almost 100,000 people in it.

A lot of celebrities came out against Reagan’s war on the Sandinistas including Bonnie Raitt. There were also celebrities who played a concert at the end of the march including Jackson Browne.

Across the country people had smaller marches from city to city. This event was a major high point in the peace movement of that time. And this was just one event. There were a lot of other marches, meetings and discussions. There was pressure being put on members of congress. All this was in opposition to then President Reagan. Don’t our young people deserve to know that a vibrant community within the US was working against the president and his foreign policies?

Another important point is that Reagan was living out the cold war, while the Sandinistas were one of the more modern “western style” Marxist organizations. They were more like Salvador Allende rather than East Germany. Reagan ignored that. But a lot of US progressives noticed the difference.

The important point here is that the history of solidarity movements of the 1980s was our history. Young people today need to know about it. There aren’t many books written on that subject today. Maybe we need to change that. We need to let today’s youth know that we were a part of the political landscape of the 1980s. That information is missing today.

[1]Edwards L. Ayers, Robert D. Schulzinger, Jesus F. de la Teja, Deborah Gray White, American Anthem, Modern American History, (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Orlando), 2007.

By SJ Otto

A song years ago, called The Way, by Fastball sang; “An exit to eternal summer slacking.” Well, if they needed a role model for slacking, Ron Estes is their man. Until just recently he has skipped public forums, refused debates, and ran a campaign that says: “I win by default.”

That seems to be his motto. He’s the Republican so he is going to win.

And Estes is a man who doesn’t believe in working too hard for that office. While his opponent, James Thompson, Democrat, is leaving no stone unturned, Estes is out fishing. Thompson has made all the debates and forums. He has been out meeting people. And he is just now starting to run commercials.

Estes, on the other hand has spent a lot of Republican slush money, from all their bribes and kick-backs, on lots and lots and lots of ads. And he’s gone negative, telling people that Thompson is running on behalf of Nancy Pelosi, who today is not very relevant to anything in congress, so they can tax the middle class. He also mentions his opposition to Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) which has suddenly grown much more popular since the Republicans started ripping it apart just after it was passed. Some people may not want Obamacare repealed. After all a lot of working poor people don’t favor dying early because they lack health care.

And Estes has avoided telling us how closely he has worked with our governor, Sam Brownback. Brownback has endorsed Estes. So Estes plans to take those same failed economic policies that Brownback has forced on Kansas and try to apply them at the national level.

If you want an easy going politician who doesn’t plan to work too hard, Estes is your man. For the rest of us, let’s tell Estes we don’t need a slacker representing us. Oh…wait. He will probably be out fishing. As they say: “slackers gonna slack.” We can still vote against him, April 11 or earlier.

“I’ll take care of business later after I’m done fishing!”

“What’s so bad about Sam Brownback!?”

“Work hard!? I’m gonna win by default. This election’s a cake walk!”

Pix by The Topeka Capital-Journal, estesforcongress.com. (The quotes are satire, not direct quotes.)

By SJ Otto

We hear a lot of talk about pulling the country together. We can all see how split apart this nation is. Conservatives and liberals have rarely been as divided as they are now. But joining together with people who make massive mistakes by putting their trust in repugnant government officials may not be such a wise idea. We may need to be a divided country for some time to come.

The differences between left and right go deep. But there is also a divide between some leftists and liberals. They are not one and the same. On the left we have liberals, liberal and moderate Democrats but we also have democratic socialists, communists and anarchists. They have deep differences.

For example, according to Yahoo News:

“Multiple fights broke out and at least one Trump supporter was doused with pepper spray when pro-Trump demonstrators marching along Bolsa Chica State Beach encountered a small group opposed to the Republican president who had gathered to denounce the rally.

Four counter-protesters were arrested, three for illegal use of pepper spray and one for assault and battery, Kevin Pearsall, a spokesman for the California State Parks Police said on Saturday evening. (Reuters)”

However these protesters were not really liberals, as many conservatives have said. They were dressed up in black block clothing and those are used exclusively by some anarchist and a few communist oriented groups. So these anti-Trump protesters who used pepper spray were not liberals at all.

Many conservatives either didn’t know the difference or didn’t care. Many conservative trolls have written in the comments section of that article condemning the anti-Trump protesters.

Here is an example:

Tedod

More "tolerant" liberals doing what they do best. Attacking and trying to destroy anybody who does not agree with them.

Andrew

This was predicted to happen. KTLA Channel 5 News told the world about this Trump Rally, the exact location, hours before it began... KTLA is officially supporting liberal terrorism.

Casey

Liberals always resort to violence because their positions lack logic, therefore they lose all debates.

And there are those comments that show the complete contempt for those who are not going along with the conservative views of Trump and his supporters:

carl

Liberalism is one of the most terrible diseases known to mankind. We must find a cure

NoFreeRideForYou

Once again the anti American democrat politicians in California try to shut down our freedom of speech These democrats are America's enemies!!

And from a recent Yahoo News article about Trump’s bombing of Syria:

Vance

Reading all of the moronic liberal comments if becomes clear that you socialist buffoons have no clue how government works. Trump had all his military generals giving him intel, the CIA head, .... The list goes on and on. Why don't you hate filled liberal POS just get over the fact that you lost. You are pathetic excuses for Americans. The US is trying to help and all you liberal idiots are concerned with is "now we have grounds to impeach him". Hate filled #$%$ from the Democratic party of hate.

James

It's about time ! Obama was so scared of taking action that many had to die from our cowardice. The only thing the Middle East understands is military strength. During President Bush's two terms there was little if any terrorist activity if you remember. The Libs of course will raise a ruckus, but they wouldn't be happy with free ice cream ! Liberal riots during the 70's caused the Vietnam War to be extended several years due to Democratic leadership being scared to death of taking affirmative action like bombing Hanoi or Haiphong Harbor. Also they literally advertised targets beforehand and had insane policies like not allowing pilots to destroy enemy planes on the ground until they took off or destroy missiles until they lit their radar. Insane !

These last comments are an example of how bringing the different political sides together are nearly impossible. When such people consider a person’s politics a disease and when another call Democrats anti-American enemies, there is not much hope for bringing such people together for a constructive dialog.

Until some common ground can be found, we will have to operate under the assumption that some people are just plain unreachable and dangerous. The only reaction to such people can be a sharp struggle against them and not an attempt to seek harmony.

There is nothing wrong with political struggle against politically backward ideas. That is normal. We may be more divided today than years past, but that can’t be helped. More people today get their news from biased political news sites. We live in a time when some conservative people are waging a war-like campaign on the entire left—everything from liberalism to communism and anarchism.

On one hand we keep hearing that communism is dead— gone and buried. But we also hear from the right that we must fight against such dangerous ideas. The trend on the right is to eradicate all sympathy for the left. That means that we on the left must fight back to prevent the conservatives from achieving their goal.

We must fight the good fight!

Pix from No Film School.

By SJ Otto

Not surprisingly, Ron Estes beat James Thompson, but not by as much as the Republican Party expected or hoped for. Just before 10 last night, Estes finally made it to his election campaign party. Like all other events connected to the campaign, such as debates and public appearances, Estes put little effort into any of it. That slacker was late to his own campaign party.

Thompson ran a real campaign and the Democratic Party mostly ignored him until the last minute. Despite that, he ran an extensive campaign and nearly won with 45 percent of the vote, compared with Estes’ 52 percent. The Libertarian got 2 Percent. Thompson’s people tried to go under the radar with their various efforts at shoring up their supporters.

Realizing what a slacker Estes is, the Republican Party pulled out all the stops. They spent lots of money on this race, at least $459,000, part of it spent running viscous and at times, misleading attack ads. They were running those ads every break on the major TV Stations the day of the election. Both President Donald Trump and Vice-President Mike Pence made robocalls to Republican constituents. Ted Cruz made a stop in Wichita to get out the Republican vote. In contrast Thompson spent $240,000 and most of that was money he and his staff raised, not money from the state or national Democratic Party. Much of that money was due to appeals from progressive grassroots organizations that were riding a wave of anti-Trump enthusiasm among Democrats across the country. On the other hand Estes got most of his money from the state and national Republican Party. He and his staff did almost nothing to raise money from individuals.

That vote last night was the closest vote since about 1992. Thompson said on KAKE TV last night, ‘this is just the battle and not the war.’ He plans to run again in 2018. Estes acted like he won by a landslide when he finally showed up for the TV stations. He ignored the difficulty of this race and acted as if he had a mandate to take to Washington to support Trump.

Republicans are right to be worried as to whether they will keep their grip on Kansas. In the last few elections, their support has gone way down and their candidates are nowbarely winning. Thompson may be right—that this is just a battle and Kansas Democrats, such as him, will win the war for the hearts and minds of Kansans.

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