Wednesday, December 18--Picasso’s Pizzeria, Wichita

The event was called "Pizza, Politics and the Planet." It was announced in the calendar for the Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas. When I got to Picasso's Pizzeria, it turned out that the event was more of a Sierra Club event. That was OK. It turned out that many of our local Kansas legislators had come to hear their constituents and to answer questions.

Present were Senator Mary Ware, Representative J.C. Moore, Representative Jim Ward, Representative Gail Finney, Representative Michael Capps, Representative Carolyn McGuinn and Senator Oletha Faust Guido.

The event’s MC was Zack Pistora, the lobbyist for Sierra Club

Among the subjects discussed that night included the extreme weather changes that have come to pass, since global warming has begun. Unlike our idiot President Donald Trump, no one in attendance had to question global warming. We all knew it was real—no doubt about it.

People in attendance discussed such extreme changes as flooding, tornadoes and earthquakes.

As we could tell by a paper from the Sierra Club given out at the event, Cities across this state are trying to become more energy efficient and many cities have adapted an energy efficient programs. Pistora announced that Kansas had surpassed its goal of 20 percent renewable energy by 2020. Many cities in Kansashope to do much better, for instance Lawrence, KS, wants to move to 100 percent clean energy by 2030.

Among other things discussed were the "Climate and Health Declaration, Leadership Opportunities!"

"WE DECLARE OUR COMMITMENT TO A HEALTHIER FUTURE FOR ALL!"

"Over 400 Kansans and 29 organizations have signed the Kansas Climate + Health Declaration. We stand together with leading public health organizations to make a clear call to our state’s leadership to address climate change as a primary threat to public health. Have you signed?"

We're pleased to announce the City of Lawrence as our first municipal signer! To see the full list of organizational signers and their statements of support, visit ResilientKansas.org.

We need to reduce risks of climate disruption to safeguard the future of our state. Join the movement to urge bold, comprehensive action to reduce emissions and build resilience."

Among other changes were an end to Fracking. Those present also discussed how abandoned wells need to be safer.

Other issues discussed included a lower sales tax on food, to help poorer people to afford the food they need.

So this is just one in such of many meetings these people plan to hold over the next year to help restore our climate and reduce the harm caused by hapless inconsiderate idiots as President Donald Trump.

Eugene Robinsons’ article looks into the soul of US politics and the moral instincts of such an event as the impeachment as one of the most

Corruptible presidents in this nation’s history.

For those of us who or are trying to survive in this poor nation’s hell hole, it is real hard to put up with this hostile environment. For many of us, Trumps’s Americais a poor person’s nightmare—higher taxes, loss of medical coverage, protections for predatory lenders, the list goes on and on. I totally agree that impeachment will not remove Trump. I will mark him as a man who could not follow the rules that a president should have. He is a truly despicable human being and calling him a human being is a stretch at best.—SJ Otto

By Eugene Robinson

Don’t move on quite yet. Pause a moment before racing ahead to questions about what a Senate trial will look like or what impact all of this will have in November. Let what just happened sink in: On Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2019, Donald Trump became only the third U.S.president to be impeached by the House of Representatives. This will be his legacy for all time.

Knowing there will be an asterisk of shame next to his name in the history books drives Trump around the bend, apparently. But he earned it. Trump is precisely what the framers of the Constitution feared, an unethical and immoral president who would trample the nation’s laws and institutions to keep himself in power. The House, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), stood up to tell him: No. Not here. Not now.

The latest Trump impeachment updates…..

“What is at risk here is the very idea of America,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) said, as he ended eight hours of often bitter debate. Moments later, the House approved two articles of impeachment charging Trump with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.

AD.

Another part of his article that I really find helpful:

“We heard a lot from Republicans about the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump, about how Democrats “hate” them and find them “deplorable” and are trying to “deny them a say in their government.” We heard not a peep from Republicans about the nearly 66 million Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton or the nearly 8 million who voted for other candidates. Note to the GOP: This impeachment can’t “overturn the will of the American people.” The electoral college already did that.”

And finally I found his conclusion to be really illuminating. I’m grateful to The Wichita Eagle for printing this article:

I listened to the whole debate, and I don’t believe I heard one of Trump’s Republican defenders attest to his sterling character. I don’t believe I heard one of them say Trump would never do the things he is accused of doing. However, I did hear many Republicans seek to excuse Trump’s conduct by noting that his scheme ultimately did not succeed. That says a lot about the president, and it says even more about the GOP, which once had the right to call itself the Party of Lincoln. Not anymore. It is now, without question, the Party of Trump.

We heard a lot from Republicans about the 63 million Americans who voted for Trump, about how Democrats “hate” them and find them “deplorable” and are trying to “deny them a say in their government.” We heard not a peep from Republicans about the nearly 66 million Americans who voted for Hillary Clinton or the nearly 8 million who voted for other candidates. Note to the GOP: This impeachment can’t “overturn the will of the American people.” The electoral college already did that.

But, of course, no one is disputing the result of the 2016 election. Trump was duly elected, according to the rules set out by the Constitution. Now he has been duly impeached, also according to the Constitution. This is how the system was designed to work.

Impeachment is the only tool we have to punish, and potentially remove, a president. There are very good reasons it has been used only three times in our history. And there are very good reasons one of those impeachments was that of Donald Trump.

So he won the election on a technicality and he may win again. That is not because the majority of Americans want him in office, but because he and his followers know how to manipulate the system. If he can manipulate the system he can hold office for the next four years.

Pix by "A is for Asshole": A Children’s “ABC”Guide to Donald Trump & the Trump Administration.

From the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee:

Not long ago, Republican strategists gathered in a secret meeting location to begin plotting their strategy to gerrymander the country's legislative and congressional districts following the 2020 election.

Nearly 200 top Republican lawmakers were in attendance, discussing how to best disguise their racial gerrymandering from the courts, destroy evidence ahead of lawsuits, and hide their true intentions from the public.

But now, the audio recording has leaked — along with the list of the GOP legislators at the meeting — and many of those exact legislators will be on the ballot next fall. Defeating the Republicans in that room would blow the GOP's gerrymandering schemes out of the water. To do that, we need you with us.

Sign the petition to tell Republicans we won’t let them get away with racial gerrymandering. Come 2020, we will vote them out.

SIGN ON

GOP strategists were absolutely ecstatic about Brett Kavanaugh and conservative Supreme Court justices green-lighting partisan gerrymandering this summer.

Even more, Republicans in this meeting expressed that if they win in 2020, they're ready to slash nonpartisan redistricting commissions and take gerrymandering into their own hands — just like they did last time. State Democrats need your help to stop right-wing gerrymandering across the country. Add your name to stand with us.

SIGN ON

DLCC Team

Paid for by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.

Does not equal endorsement.

According to Boing Boing the classic Christmas ditty "Happy Xmas" By John Lennon is now protected from the public for being "offensive content." So what is offensive about it? I have posted this song almost every year since I’ve had my blog, since 2015.

Now a person has to sign in and declare they are 18 or older. So why is this? What could be offensive about this video? The only thing I can tell is that it is some what anti-war in a time when war is very popular. It is sad commentary that a video that provides a positive anti-war message is considered “offensive content.” So here is the video that I have posted year after year with no complaints. –SJ Otto

The censored version.

FromBoing Boing:

Robbo sez, "As is my wont, I post on social media at this time of year John Lennon & Yoko Ono's Happy Xmas (War Is Over) official YouTube video. It is an anthem for peace and the end of war. This year it has been labelled as "inappropriate content" and requires viewers to sign in to confirm they are 18 years or older. Yes, there are images of war and suffering within the video - but for cryin' out fuckin' loud, YouTube, it's something that deserves and should be seen and heard by everyone, all the damned time - such dumb ass fuckery is going to be the end of our so-called civilization."

By SJ Otto

This summer I made my historic trip to Cuba. I’ve written several articles about Cubabut I haven’t yet written about my time in a leftist community in Mexico City called, La Organización Pancho Francisco Villa Independiente Izquierdista (Los Panchos for short). It was an interesting place and in some ways it was a city or country within a city or country.

While I was there we saw every element of the community. It was literally like a separate country or city. Everything the people needed, from growing food, cleaning up water for the community’s use, skating rinks, stages for community culture, even a radio station was all provided by the community.

More than 4,000 people live in this place. It is very private to join. To belong to this place had a lot of requirements, including going to meetings and helping out with the various jobs and tasks the community required. At first I wondered why people were willing to give up time and privacy to belong in this place. But walking around the outside of this community in Mexico Cityit became obvious why people would want to live here.

Mexico Cityis crowded—real crowded! Buildings are close together. They seem to build buildings on top of buildings. There are homes and buildings everywhere. What is lacking is space between the buildings. Front lawns are non-existent—as well as back yards. The city is dirty and I could smell sewage almost every place I went. At one point in the leftist community we could see outside to a ghetto. It had lots of bland looking concrete buildings and we were told that one reason it smelled so bad is that people kept farm animals in their homes. We saw a turkey standing on a tin roof. There was no farm land, that is to say, we saw no dirt, grass or spaces for the farm animals. They just live among the homes that were jammed next to each other and on top of each other.

Inside the leftist community we could see the apartments they all lived in. They were clean, spacious and brightly painted. There is actually some space between buildings in this community. There were all the resources and amenities needed for a person to live comfortable. Living here is well worth the requirements.

There is strict security to this place. No one gets in without some kind of ID. People have health care in here. They have music theatre. They developed there own cultural identity.

They sometimes had to ration water. They had a water works outfit so that water is available for such uses as drinking, bathing and cooking. They have some water that is kind of a gray color and is only used for such things as growing vegetables.

They have their own radio station. Besides news programs it has a schedule for all kinds of music, reggae, punk, hip hop and just about anything the community wanted to listen to.

There are plenty of pictures of famous Latin American Revolutionaries, such as Che Guevara and Pancho Villa. There is definitely a leftwing ideology to this community.

It seems like a deviation from a revolutionary movement to provide a closed community for just those who want to join, rather than trying to change the whole city or country. But this community has been very successful over the years. Maybe this is just one way to try and promote left-wing ideas. One thing for sure is that living in this place is far more comfortable than trying to live in regular Mexico City.

There is plenty of things to do in La Organización Pancho Francisco Villa Independiente Izquierdista. This is an open place for sports and when it it cold enough, a skating rink.

This has a playground for the kids and a stage for cultural activities.

A main building for this community is located on this crowded street in Mexico City.

Buildings are close together and stacked on top of each other in Mexico City.

This is a slum that can be viewed, down hill, from the community.

By SJ Otto

There are times when I am totally dumbfounded by the stupidity of President Donald Trump. For years now, the US has occupied Iran. It has created a puppet government. There are still US troops all over that country and when the US took on ISIS (Islamic State) they put Iraqi troops on the front lines so there would be few US soldiers killed.

For many Iraqis this has been a major source of national humiliation. Now we see that humiliation reaching a boiling point, when protesters stormed the US Embassy. Iraqi troops didn’t try to stop them.

And what does the idiot Trump say about all of this. According to CNN:

"Iranwill be held fully responsible for lives lost, or damage incurred, at any of our facilities," Trump tweeted from Florida. "They will pay a very BIG PRICE! This is not a Warning, it is a Threat."

He seriously tries to blame Iran for the fact that his occupied people are rebelling!? This has got to be one of the most idiotic statements ever made by Trump and one of the most idiotic statements made from any president this country has ever had. Does he really believe he can stop the rage of the Iraqi people by threatening Iran?!

When he nixed the Iranian deal on nuclear weapons, he was not only stupid but arrogant. He not only sanctioned that country, but he threatened to sanction any country, including European countries, if they had any dealings with Iran. As of now Iran has no reason to cooperate with the USand the people of that country are being punished for the actions of their government.

Trump and the US recently bombed an area that was supposedly under the control of Hezbollah. Hezbollah is supposedly a terrorist organization, but, as with many such organizations, that designation is purely political and has nothing to do with that group actually using terrorism against the US. Hezbollah is a religious paramilitary group that takes its inspiration from

Iran

. Almost all the countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, have such proxy armies. There is no reason why Iran can’t have such a group.

Trump acts the arrogant ass and he may commit this country to war on Iran.

Peace loving people, in this country, really need to stand up to this arrogant ass Trump and let him and his henchmen, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, know that they and their actions are unacceptable to the majority of the American people.

This people of this country should be out raged that this country is occupying foreign nations and they should have been out raged years ago. It is like the people of this country are either asleep or just plain insensitive. It is time for everyone to wake up and call out our stupid leader Trump for the arrogant ass that he is!

Pix by Iraq protesters attack US Embassy in Baghdad - CNN.

By SJ Otto

Never have I seen a more unfit person take on the mantle of “president of the United States” than the impulsive and idiotic Donald Trump. Any system that allows such a person to get elected and hold power is clearly broken down. USdemocracy is simply not working at all.

When 40 percent of the population actually back and support a man like Trump, I have to wonder if democracy itself is the problem. There is seriously something wrong when a country has so many people willing to support this buffoon and bully. This is a man who was exposed saying in affect, he could walk up to a woman and grab her “pussy” because he is rich and powerful. Even after bragging about this, he still got elected president.

Trump, seems to claim that internal riots at the US Embassy in Iraq, where actually the work of

Iran

If we can believe Trump, somehow the Iranian government convinced people, living in an occupied country, where they are treated as second or third class citizens, where their lives are taken and no one in the

cares, made all of those people mad enough to riot against the embassy. This is what he wants us to believe. That line of thinking is belligerent and completely idiotic.

His main henchman, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is supporting Trumps faulty logic and has even tried to convince this country and its people that Qassem Soleimani, the leader of the Iranian Quds Force, has had plans to make attacks on this country. It was Trump who broke an agreement that the US and Iransigned to prevent Iranfrom developing nuclear weapons. Next he put crippling sanctions on Iran. He backed them into a corner and now he wants all out war.

The worst part of all of this is that our military establishment has been fully supported by BOTH parties in Congress, for the last 40 years. We have had only two parties in Congress since before the US Civil War. For those of us opposed to the endless wars and occupations that have occurred since the days of Ronald Reagan, we have no one to vote for. Even if Bernie Sanders and the so called “Squad”object to this new war, most of the Democrats will probably avoid opposing these reckless actions and that small group will have no real impact on Congressional inaction.

There is a real case that democracy in US is dead, if it ever was alive in the fist place. Republicans have used gerrymandering and have learned to manipulate the Electoral College, so that they don’t even have to win elections. They can hold office with a minority of the vote. We also have an entrenched system with only two political parties. No one has ever won the presidency belonging to any other political party. This is also true of the Senate and most members of the House of Representatives. There have been a few people elected to Congress as independents. It has been possible to get elected without a party, as was done by Bernie Sanders for most of his career. Now has given up that distinction so he could run for president.

USdemocracy has always had its share of phoniness. Almost no other bourgeois democracy has just two parties.

So we have two issues going on here, first there is the endless war that this country wages all around the world. The mainstream press has done little, if anything, to oppose any of these endless wars. The second issue is the reckless actions of a man who manipulated a messed up system, The Electoral College, a system that should have been demolished years ago.

The original idea behind democracy is that people can make decision about the way they live. That is not what has been happening in the US. Businesses and special interests have used the system to manipulate people and they have bought off the electorate.

Worst of all, is having to live through possibly the most irresponsible jack ass to ever hold the presidency.

Pix by US tells citizens to leave Iraq, doesn't mention Soleimani ..., andCity of Duncanville.

By SJ Otto

Today there was a demonstration against our Idiot President Donald Trump against his actions to start a war with the government of Iran. These particular actions were held in Wichita, at Douglass and Broadway. The group started out small, maybe 30 people. Then it grew throughout the afternoon. By the time I left there was nearly 100 people.

Slogans the group shouted included “Peace throughout the land, no war with Iran.” Also “war—what is it good for, absolutely nothing”—which is from the song by Edwin Starr - War (What is it good for).

As the afternoon wore on, people took up on each corner of the street, with signs condemning the war.

It was great to see so many people outraged by the war effort of our idiot and chief, Trump. The man is probably feeling that this action might contribute to his re-election efforts. He doesn’t deserve it. This really should sink his chances for re-election, even though there are a lot of idiot bullet heads who support the ass hole.

By SJ Otto
President Donald Trump’s big move against Iran, assassinating military leader Qasem Soleimani, seems to have back-fired in some ways.
For example US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said, shortly after the attack, that Iraqis are celebrating the death of Soleimani by “dancing in streets.” A few days later millions of people took to the streets to mourn Soleimani and show respect for him.
According to US News and World Report:

“Crowds condemned "the terror act of the U.S." and gathered holding photos of the late general chanting "Down with the U.S." and "Down with Israel."

If Pompeo seriously thought the people of Iran were going to be thankful to the

for killing
Soleimani, he was seriously mistaken. In this past year many Iranians were protesting their government for a failing economy. But Soleimani was a hero to the Iranian people. Killing him outraged most of Iran’s people. Both Trump and Pompeo seemed caught off guard by the whole thing.
We now know that“Pentagon officials reportedly offered US President Donald Trump a list of options for dealing with escalating tensions with

Iran

. Trump ultimately chose to target a senior Iranian military official, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a USairstrike late Thursday.”

Trump chose the most extreme option. According to Business Outsider:

“The officials offered the option of killing Soleimani mainly to make the others seem more appealing, which The Times described as a common tactic for

officials advising presidents.”

One thing that Pentagon officials were able to do was reject Trump’s threat to hit Iranian cultural sites. That would have been a disaster. The world has already seen what ISIS (Islamic State) and the Taliban have done to the relicts of the ancient world. There is no excuse for disrespecting someone else’s religious beliefs. That would have enraged Moslems the world over.

Everything that is happening in Iran demonstrates what can happen when an irresponsible buffoon is allowed to make foreign policy. Left unchecked Trump would have us in a disastrous position. He has cause extensive damage and out rage to the people of the Middle East. Because he commands the largest and most extensive military in the world, he gets away with his arrogant ways. And even those in the Democratic Party, who should know better, have allowed Trump to do what he is doing, which is creating a huge mess. The entire US Congress has allowed Trump to act as a war criminal. Congress is almost as irresponsible as Trump is, for allowing these war crimes to simply go on unabated.

If Congress lacks the courage to stop this war, the citizens of this country need to step in and do something about it. No country has the military to stop the US Army. That is up to us, the citizens of this country.

By SJ Otto

Usually everything I post about the royal family of

England

is negative. I have completely dissed the royal family, in the past. Things have changed.

The things I opposed of the royals is that they have lived on the taxes of the English people.

The royal family has existed off the “crimes” of the past.

How many people understand the explanation of “hung, drawn and quartered.”[1]

So now that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are making a dramatic move to distant themselves from the Royal family. I have to admire the move. England should have ended the monarchy years ago. If they don’t do that, these two have removed themselves from the confinement of the royal dynasty. They simply want develop their own careers. There is nothing wrong with that. Both in England and the US, they have the right to open up their lives. They want to start earning their own money and that is a positive move on their part.

Why would they not want to earn money on their own abilities and earn an honorable living. They want to remove themselves from the horrible Royal trap that has snarled them. According to People:

“We intend to step back as ‘senior’ members of the Royal Family and work to become financially independent, while continuing to fully support Her Majesty, The Queen. It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared to make this adjustment.”

Again, I would normally not focus an article on the Royal family in England. But this time I am considering the local angle of a family that is trying to split from the Royal family and trying to break out on their own, trying to develop so they have some independence of their own and not totally dependent on their family history—which includes the crimes of tyranny by a tyrannical family.

I hope they are successful. No one needs to be confined to a job they never applied for. They have a right to their own successfulness.

Pix by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle quit the royal family

[1]To be hanged, drawn and quartered was, from 1352, a statutory penalty in England for men convicted of high treason, although the ritual was first recorded during the reign of King Henry III (1216–1272). The convicted traitor was fastened to a hurdle, or wooden panel, and drawn by horse to the place of execution, where he was then hanged (almost to the point of death), emasculated, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered (chopped into four pieces). His remains would then often be displayed in prominent places across the country, such as London Bridge, to serve as a warning of the fate of traitors. For reasons of public decency, women convicted of high treason were instead burned at the stake.

The severity of the sentence was measured against the seriousness of the crime. As an attack on the monarch's authority, high treason was considered a deplorable act demanding the most extreme form of punishment. Although some convicts had their sentences modified and suffered a less ignominious end, over a period of several hundred years many men found guilty of high treason were subjected to the law's ultimate sanction. They included many English Catholic priests executed during the Elizabethan era, and several of the regicides involved in the 1649 execution of Charles I.

Although the Act of Parliament defining high treason remains on the United Kingdom's statute books, during a long period of 19th-century legal reform the sentence of hanging, drawing, and quartering was changed to drawing, hanging until dead, and posthumous beheading and quartering, before being abolished in England in 1870. The death penalty for treason was abolished in 1998.

By SJ Otto

I remember when I went to vote for president in 2016. The place I went in North Newton, Kansas, and I was overrun by young people. The overwhelmingly went for Bernie Sanders. I also voted for Bernie. I should point out that us professional journalists always use the last name. But at times it seems I should use the familiar name of a person I truly appreciate.

I was amazed that day that so many young people came out to vote for Bernie. In KansasBernie won. That was among Democrats only. I remember, shortly after that, all the people who told me they could not, in good conscious, vote for Hillary Clinton. I knew she was in trouble, right then and their. When the general election came, my worst fears were realized. Donald Trump got elected president over Clinton.

At the time I was concerned about the future of Obama Care (Affordable Care Act). It wasn’t perfect, but it was better than the alternative—nothing. That is what we got from Trump. Young people don’t rely on programs for their healthcare needs, but old fart like me do. Our ass hole president immediately took away as much health care as he could. If it weren’t for the courts he’d have taken it all away. He said he would come up with a plan of his own so that everyone in the US could have health care. He lied. He went back to the old system that all right wingers love—a system that simply eliminates health care for the poor.

Now I see evidence that Bernie is almost in the lead. According to CNN:

“Poll of the week: A new Monmouth University poll of likely New Hampshire Democratic primary voters finds a close race with former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg at 20%, former Vice President Joe Biden at 19%, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders at 18% and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren at 15%.

This is the second New Hampshire poll meeting CNN standards published this month that has Sanders in the top tier.

What's the point: The idea of Sanders winning the nomination is inconceivable to some, but it really shouldn't be. While few objective analysts would think of him as the frontrunner, it's pretty clear he has a clear path to the nomination.

The first step is to win the Iowa caucuses. This seems quite doable. He was at 20% in our latest CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll. Sanders was joined in the top tier by Biden, Buttigieg and Warren.

Iowa poll shows a tight four-way race in final weeks before the Democratic caucuses

The next step is to win in New Hampshire. Again, Sanders is in a position to do so. He's at or near the top of the polls now, and a win in Iowa would probably result in a bounce in the Granite State.

A lot of Sanders' pessimists would use this as an opportunity to point out that Iowa and New Hampshire aren't representative of the nation racially. That is, they're really white.”

Does this mean that Bernie has a chance of winning? He is the most dynamic candidate. The political establishment wants a centrist as Pete Buttigieg or Joe Biden to win. They want some one who will not rock the boat. The established news commentators want to get rid of Trump, but they want a “Trump light,” not an actual change. They love the system of supporting $millionaires and $billionaires. The love the idea of being rich. And they love the system that let’s them do that. But many of the millennials want real change. They want progressive government, not just Democrats who will keep up the system of worshiping $millionaires and $billionaires. The millennials of today may want something different.

This has becomes a generational struggle. We saw something similar recently when

“In July, the school board in a small Connecticut town called Killingly took what local officials said was a long-overdue step: removing the name of the school mascot, Redmen, which some Native Americans have deemed racist.

Students did not seem to rebel against the change, even agreeing in the fall to adopt a new name, the Redhawks.

But then the adults had their say.

Residents, apparently angered by the removal of the Redmen mascot, flocked to the polls in November and gave Republicans control of the town council and school board.

The new school board quickly voted to rescind the Redhawks name. And this week, at a contentious five-hour meeting, the board voted 5-4 to reinstate Redmen, which first became the school mascot in 1939.”

I hate to admit it, but I am the same age as many of these shitty ass holes who have voted in Republicans for the privilege of keeping a racist tradition alive. These jerks believed this stupid tradition was so important they put in ultraconservatives to run their city and school board.

People like this are sickening. I hope that these new millennials can help us push out these jerk-off conservatives, both Republican and centrist Democrats. Conservative rule must come to an end. We have the “Squad,” we have

Bernie, we need to take control of this country and jettison the conservative jack asses that have captured and nearly destroyed our country.

The future is ours if we take it.

Just recentlyNPRposted an article and pod cast that explained the US CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) involvement in the overthrow of

Iran

’s democracy in 1953. At a time when our idiot President Donald Trump is brining us closer to war with Iran, it is important for people to understand why the relationship between Iran and the US has been so bad.

In 1951 The Iranians voted in Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. He was the 35th prime minister of Iran. But the US did not like Mossadegh. He was a nationalist and he was not the kind of leader the US wanted in Iran. So in 1953 the CIA engineered a coup against Mossadegh. And who did they chose to replace him? They chose Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. He was a monarch and a tyrant. He was never elected. Once he was restored to the thrown and Iran’s democratic system was brought to an end, the USmade sure the Shah stayed in a position of leadership. He was not a popular leader. According toWikipedia:

The reign of Reza Shah was authoritarian and dictatorial at a time when authoritarian governments and dictatorships were common in the region and the world^[8] and Universal Declaration of Human Rights was some years in the future.

Freedom of the press, workers' rights, and political freedoms were restricted under Reza Shah. Independent newspapers were closed down, political parties—even the loyal Revival party were banned. The government banned all trade unions in 1927, and arrested 150 labor organizers between 1927 and 1932.^[9]

Physical force was used against some kinds of prisoners — common criminals, suspected spies, and those accused of plotting regicide. Burglars in particular were subjected to the bastinado (beating the soles of the feet), and the strappado (suspended in the air by means of a rope tied around the victims arms) to "reveal their hidden loot". Suspected spies and assassins were "beaten, deprived of sleep, and subjected to the qapani" (the binding of arms tightly behind the back) which sometimes caused a joint to crack. But for political prisoners — who were primarily Communists — there was a "conspicuous absence of torture" under Reza Shah's rule.^[10] The main form of pressure was solitary confinement and the withholding of "books, newspapers, visitors, food packages, and proper medical care". While often threatened with the qapani, political prisoners "were rarely subjected to it

At one time Human rights groups had accused the Shah of having at least 100,000 political prisoners. So the US had replaced a democratic system with a complete dictatorship. This was a major reason that the revolution of 1979 took place. When the Iranian revolution began there were several political factions struggling for power, including a number of Marxist-Leninist and Maoist parties. The conservative Islamic leaders won power once they had control they viciously attacked all the leftist, running them either underground or liquidating them all together. While the Islamic government forced everyone in Iranto support Islam, it has provided a very limited democracy, which is slightly more democratic than the Shah was. The following information is something all Americans need to understand before they allow Trump to drag us into war we simply don’t need at all. There is no justification for such a war and the following story will explain why so many Iranians do not trust the US. –SJ Otto

On Aug. 19, 2013, the CIA publicly admitted for the first time its involvement in the 1953 coup against

Iran

's elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

The documents provided details of the CIA's plan at the time, which was led by senior officer Kermit Roosevelt Jr., the grandson of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. Over the course of four days in August 1953, Roosevelt would orchestrate not one, but two attempts to destabilize the government of Iran, forever changing the relationship between the country and the U.S. In this episode, we go back to retrace what happened in the inaugural episode of NPR's new history podcast, Throughline.

Mohammad Mossadegh was a beloved figure in Iran. During his tenure, he introduced a range of social and economic policies, the most significant being the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry. Great Britain had controlled Iran's oil for decades through the Anglo-Iranian Oil Co. After months of talks the prime minister broke off negotiations and denied the British any further involvement in Iran's oil industry. Britain then appealed to the United States for help, which eventually led the CIA to orchestrate the overthrow of Mossadegh and restore power to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran.

For the rest click here.

Pictured above is Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

I received this letter from progressive Democrats who realize they are strongly opposed by the corporate oriented centrist Democrats, who oppose Donald Trump and his party, yet support a lot of his policies. They are “Trump light!” Many Democrats, such as Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg, have no interest in seeing a progressive win in Congress or the White House. There are many of us who want to move this country to the left. We don’t just want ANY Democrat to win against Trump. We want actual policy changes. We care about the issues. We care about Millionaires and Billionaires who have taken full control of our country. We are tired of seeing poor people being punished and over taxed because the wealthy and better off can get away with it. So here is your chance to make a difference in up and coming primary elections.

-SJ Otto

The Letter:

Last night, (by now, at least a week ago) the head of the DCCC was asked point blank on MSNBC:

“Do you think AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez)is good for the Democratic caucus?” She refused to answer.

The DCCC knows we’re a threat. They’re upset that we refused to pay $250,000 in “dues.” They don’t like that we’re not quiet when they back pro-Trump or anti-choice candidates over progressives in competitive primaries.

So we’re building our own version of the DCCC: a progressive alternative infrastructure that will help community leaders, activists, and working-class candidates run for office and WIN. It’s called Courage to Change, and we need your help launching it today:

Will you make a Founding Donor gift to Courage to Change now? With the head of the DCCC attacking us on live TV, your donations today send a powerful message about whose side you’re on.

If you've stored your info with ActBlue, we'll process your contribution to AOC and Courage to Change instantly:

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Here’s a fact: Dan Lipinski, incumbent Democrat and member of the Blue Dog Caucus, has refused to pay DCCC dues for years. The DCCC is still protecting Lipinski against his progressive challenger, despite his horrific record on abortion.

Refusing to pay “dues” isn’t uncommon.

Historically, members of the Blue Dog Caucus have often refused to pay DCCC dues, and faced virtually no consequences for it. In fact, the DCCC often spends huge sums of cash to protect Blue Dog Dems — but only people like AOC take flak for not paying dues.

This brazen double standard is just the tip of the iceberg. Our current system is designed to suppress working-class, progressive candidates to protect out of touch, corporate incumbents. Things need to change.

I was driving along in my car, when American Idiot, by Green Day, came on over my radio. I often listen to T-95, our local rock station. It plays music from the 1990s and since that time. I was listening to that song and suddenly I though of our president, Donald Trump, our idiot and chief. This song was written years before Trump was elected president. And yet as I listened to the song, it seemed as if the song was written for our leader and especially the people who voted for him and continue to support him today. Three years after this man was elected president I am still mystified as to how any human beings can seriously support this man. He is so incredibly mean spirited and hateful to so many UScitizens. All I can think is there must be a lot of psychopathic haters out there. So for those of you who like our Prez., This song is for you:

-SJ Otto

By SJ Otto

I can remember a time when no politician would dare to mess with Social Security, Medicare or anything to do with seniors. The generation before me voted. When a politician went anywhere near their livelihood, they would go to their offices, they would surround their cars, they would make it miserable for any politician who dared mess with Social Security. Those days are gone. Those seniors are now all dead.

Now I’m a senior and NO ONE from my generation is going to Congress to defend Social Security. It is fair game for those Republicans, including our obnoxious President Donald Trump, to just take it all away and leave us with nothing to live on. The Medicare system that I am now on and depend on for my medicines and my medical care are in danger of being taken away.

My generation is made up of wimpy cowards who can’t wait to roll over and play dead. They are actually supporting those Republicans who never question spending money so that our military can take over other people’s countries and create US puppet governments, but when it comes to providing health care to those in this country, who need it, we are told “we can’t afford it.” According to CNN:

“Asked by CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, whether entitlements would ever be on his plate, Trump responded, "At some point they will be."

"We have tremendous growth. We're going to have tremendous growth. This next year I -- it'll be toward the end of the year. The growth is going to be incredible. And at the right time, we will take a look at that," he added.

Asked by CNBC whether he was willing "to do some of the things that you said you wouldn't do in the past, though, in terms of Medicare," Trump said: "We're going look."

So there we are. There is no security in this country for those at the bottom of the economy who are not wealthy enough to pay for their own medical needs. And we live in the most expensive country in the world for medical needs.

In my life time, no president has been as willing as Trump to stab his own citizens in the back. And all this time there are those brainless working class people who are so dumb and witless that they actually support this man.

Trump is on trial for using foreign aid for his own personal ambitions. His real crimes are against working people, working poor, seniors and anyone who is at a vulnerable place in their lives. The poor in Cuba can go to a doctor when they are sick. Not so in this country. Trump and his party have stabbed the poor, working poor and those too old to work—in the back. That is his real crime. That is the one crime he is not on trial for. That is because nearly all of the US Congress just doesn’t give a damn about promises made to the generation they are now ripping off!

Pix by Donald Trump Sucks by Vicious on Spotify

By SJ Otto

Day after day I check the news on my iPhone, lab top and TV. I constantly see conservative pundits making fun of the Green New Deal. It cost money, which they ridicule. Many of these people don’t believe that climate change is real, and they ridicule all of us who do. They act like it is on the level with putting foil hats on our heads to protect us from aliens. For example, just today I found this comment on one of those conservative anti-New Deal articles (From Climate Depot):

‘Imbeciles…moronic stuff’: Physicist Unleashes on European Green Deal’s as a ‘standard Marxist garbage plan’ – ‘Insane suicidal goal of net-zero emissions’

Read the Full Article

Former Harvard Univerity physicist Dr. Lubos Motl rips the "imbeciles who are employed as members of the European Parliament."

European Green Deal: "This list of outrageous green documents and organizations was probably included in order to terrify the citizens so that many won't have the courage to point out that this stuff is being produced by the same toxic scum among politicians...There is no "need" to tackle climate change and even if there were one, it would be in no way urgent and decades of waiting would make no detectable difference...

It kind of makes us fee like: “Wow! How could I have been so stupid as to believe in those climate change leftists?” This is quite a mouth full. “Toxic scum?” Wow! These New Deal people must not only be real stupid and dumb, they are really bad people. One of these authors even referred to some of the Green New Deal supporters as “Marxists.” That is probably supposed to mean they are REAL bad people.

Then there is ADRIANA COHEN who points out that many of these liberal law makers went to a Green New Deal event on chartered private jets. I’m not sure how that news makes the Green New Deal irrelevant. Why does this matter at all, how they arrive at some destination? Is there a contradiction between opposing climate change and using a private jet?

“When it comes to climate change, are liberal proponents of the costly Green New Deal and other radical environmental initiatives bamboozling Americans?

There isn’t a day that goes by that liberal lawmakers and Democratic presidential contenders aren’t screaming from the rooftops about the “apocalyptic” effects of climate change. They tell us the world is coming to an end in eight to 10 short years if we don’t “act now.”

In fact, alarmists like Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., refused to support the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) that came up for a vote in the U.S. Senate last week because the trade agreement didn’t mention the word “climate” in it. U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., also voted against it, as did Sens. Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and others.”

Conservatives have a lot of issues they try to ridicule. They like to label people as “Marxists” and “liberals.” These labels are good as push button words that draw the ire of their more conservative readers, or listeners. But conservation is a very important issue that all leftists need to take very seriously. Some issues, as saving the whales, wolves, foxes or desert Tortoises are all about aesthetics. I remember a comment from a conservative about land use in Wyoming. He said he didn’t want his taxes going to protect some kind of desert tortoise. People like him have no interest in such animals. Many ranchers would rather we wipe out Coyotes, wolves and anything else that might take some of their livestock. Some protected animals are seen, by ranchers, as a nuisance, such as prairie dogs. Others, such as the prairie chicken just don’t hold interest for many of them.

I remember a comment from a conservative about land use in

Of the more important issues is climate change, which affects us now and will continue to affect us in the future. We can ignore it as many Republican pundits suggest to us. But doing that is very dangerous to us now and for future generations.

Global warming is as real as atoms. My brother went to Alaska and said global warming is making a mess of that place. We have all of these weather related records being broken. We have fires in California. We have massive snow storms all across the northern part of our nation. We have flooding all across the south.

We use up fossil fuels which can’t be replaced. When they are gone, they are gone. We use up more and more land, some of which we will need for farming, for new housing.[1] As with many of these nonrenewable resources, when they are gone, that is the end of it. And eventually many of the more important resources, that we rely on so much, will be gone.

Conservatives figure they will die before future generations have to deal with THEIR messes. It’s all about dumping their mess on future generations. They will live out their lives comfortably, making fun of those who want to fix THEIR problems.

It is easy for these conservatives to just laugh at those who show concern for the environment, but the rest of us need to take these issues real seriously or we will end up swept away with them when our society maxes out and we run out of all our resources and our environments makes life just plain unlivable.

Storms are getting worse every year.

[1]See also: We need to adopt a “no growth” economy for future survival:

https://tiahrtfolly.blogspot.com/2016/04/we-need-to-adopt-no-growth-economy-for.html

By SJ Otto

Saturday, my wife, Cam Gentry and I went to the Women’s March, 2020, here in Wichita. The theme was “The Time is Now.” I went to this same march last year and it had been much longer. However last year it was much colder. January is a cold month to march in. Cam and I didn’t march anyway. She has health problems so we both just stayed at the Wave, a bar type facility that this event was held at.

There were many good signs the marchers carried. My favorite was some balloons that looked like President Donald Trump as a big baby. How appropriate was that? (VERY appropriate!)

Oletha Faust-Goudeau led the march. She is probably one of the most progressive Senators we have in Kansas.

Once inside there were about 18 speakers. Most were women but Lt. Governor Lynn Rogers spoke to the crowd.

“I’m here to support women,” he said. He talked about the need to raise strong women.

“My Boss (Governor Laura Kelly) is a woman,” he said.

A common theme for speakers was US history and the many women who fought and struggled to promote rights for women.

Martha Pint an Investigator at US Department of Labor, said that Many women, in history, were left behind, such as black women and Native American Indian Women. In general she said women of minority status had their own struggles outside of just being women.

Melody Miller, who serves on the Executive Board of Center for Health and Wellness, the Advisory Board for Wichita Children's Home, and the Grant Chapel A.M.E. Steward Board, talked about statistics on women who die in child birth. She pointed out that we live in the richest country in the world and yet, sadly, about 700 women die each year in the United States as a result of pregnancy or delivery complications. It is higher for minority women, such as African American women.

Amanda Meyer, of the family crisis center, talked about domestic violence.

“We put women in hotels,” she said as she talked about women who are victims of domestic violence.

“Everyone has empowerment to change,” she added. She said it is important that people do not tolerate domestic violence.

This event showed the power of women and the positive influence they can have on our politics. An important theme was that “we are done living in a misogyny oriented world.” Some speakers pointed out we would have a better society if more women were elected to our state government. That is true if we don’t consider the female ass holes we have in office such as Senator Susan Wagle, a conservative. We don’t need those kinds of women.

I have to love this. There is nothing more fitting than a balloon that looks like President Donald Trump as a big baby!

There were other marches across the country and world. For information on those marches click here.

By SJ Otto

Every once in a while I like to attack commercials I see on TV. I don’t think many people really enjoy that kind of writing, but I just can’t resist writing those things.

When I was in Cuba, they have no commercials on their TV at all. When I left CubaI could not believe other countries in Latin American haven’t chosen that kind of government. Then again, the USworks hard at destroying such countries, such as the government in Grenada.

An example of a stupid commercial is The Giza sheets, hawked by the MyPillow man Michael Lindell. Talk about bottled smoke? Cotton that is grown in some shit hole in Africais supposed to be way more comfortable than what people buy here, with cotton grown here. Ol’ Mike is a Donald Trump supporter, so the man lacks any credibility. The guy is a real phony. For example:

“MyPillow on Oct. 31 agreed to pay more than $1 million to settle a lawsuit filed by a group of California district attorneys that alleged that the Chaska, Minnesota-based company made misleading claims about the health benefits of MyPillow in its advertising. MyPillow also faces a federal lawsuit in Oregon filed on Oct. 24 for allegedly offering a bogus buy-one-get-one-free offer. And earlier this year, it settled a suit filed by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman for failing to collect sales tax from consumers in the state. That settlement was for for $1.1 million. In a press release, Lindell said he reached a settlement with 10 California district attorneys, led by Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley, to avoid a “costly and drawn out court case.” MyPillow has agreed to pay a $995,000 civil penalty and make a $100,000 contribution to organizations in Californiathat help the homeless and assist victims of domestic violence.

There are all kinds of ads for pharmaceutical companies that hawk really expensive products, such a Jardiance. They talk about how important these medicines are and fail to mention how expensive they are. Jardiance cost between about $400 and $500 or more per month.

Without some kind of insurance, how many people can afford that?One of these ads provides us with a woman, 'Audrey Is on It: Marching Band,' who leads a marching band onto a field were football is being played. There nothing realistic about the ad. She is not actually doing anything that a band leader is supposed to do. Also no school would let the bands on the field while football is being played.

According to the site, Single Care:

“The average market cost of Jardiance is $631.99 for 30, 25MG Tablet, but you can use a Jardiance coupon from SingleCare to pay only $433.16.”

For the average consumer that is a lot of money to pay for just one month of medicine. For many people, this price keeps them from getting this medicine all together. Advertising is always about deception, so we can always expect to be deceived by ads.

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We progressives just might win out!

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Trump now says he's open to entitlement cuts, including Medicare

Conservatives love to laugh at the “Green New Deal”—but for the rest of us, this is nothing to laugh at

‘Imbeciles…moronic stuff’: Physicist Unleashes on European Green Deal’s as a ‘standard Marxist garbage plan’ – ‘Insane suicidal goal of net-zero emissions’

Women’s March in Wichita, 2020 “The Time is Now”

Here is more information about phony advertising