By SJ Otto

It is unfortunate that Wichita, Kansas has a long history of artistic and political repression. That includes everything from the censorship of movies and plays (Mostly sexually suggestive subjects and nudity, but also anything to do with abortion, gay rights and at times political things as well). Wichita is in the center of some of the most repressive conservative religious movements in the country, such as the Moral Majority, Christian Coalition and Godarchy. It is heavily Republican and as Hunter S. Thompson once said: "I believe the Republicans have never thought that democracy was anything but a tribal myth."

So it is no surprise that a group of young people, mostly members of Project Justice ICT have been targeted for harassment. As we see from our hometown The Wichita Eagle:

“Wichita police ask for help identifying people for alleged crimes at protests

The Wichita Police Department is asking for the public’s help to identify people accused of committing crimes during recent protests.

Police posted photos of the people on Facebook on Wednesday. The individuals are wanted “on charges stemming from the ongoing investigations of illegal activity at demonstrations” July 30 and July 31, WPD officers said.”

Notice that the police have paid no attention to the man who tried to drive a truck through the crowd and then threatened them with a gun. The police haven’t lifted a finger to go after that guy. They don’t seem to care about that. And yet they accuse protesters of rioting, battery, vandalism, harassment and aggravated assault with a firearm.

This is all ridiculous. This country has supported protesters in both China and Venezuela who are way more destructive and disruptive, especially in China where protesters have lit people on fire and yet they pull out all the stops to prevent peaceful protests here at home. 

Wichita has a long history of not respecting people’s political rights and once again we see that in practice. Hypocrisy is a way of life in Wichita.

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 While most of the Democtatic Party, including Bernie Sanders, have gushed over Joe Biden and have called on him to beat Donald Trump, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has bucked the trend and snubbed Biden. She used her 60 second address to nominate Bernie Sanders for president.

The nomination was only symbolic. The entire party now back Biden and Trump is the main reason for that. AOC is a rising star in the Democratic Party and many feel she want to make sure that Biden pays some attention to the party’s left. Few Democrats have the status she has with all the attention she has garnished with publicity from both supportive groups and opposition.-SJ Otto

According to the New York Post:

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez only got a minute to speak at the Democratic National Convention Tuesday night but she made it count as a warning that Joe Biden not ignore the party’s far-left wing, nominating socialist Bernie Sanders and making no mention of the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

“I hereby second the nomination for Senator Bernard Sanders of Vermontfor President of the United States of America,” the New YorkDemocratic socialist said at the end of her 60-second address.

In her socialist rhetoric-heavy address, she spoke about Sanders’ movement to “repair the wounds of racial injustice, colonization, misogyny and homophobia” and not once addressed Biden, 77, who will be crowned the party’s nominee.

By SJ Otto

Suddenly we see all kinds of political ads for the various candidates and we see all kinds of false propaganda and out right lies trying to cash in on people unfounded fears.

A recent ad for Roger Marshall and Senator Jerry Moran encourages them to punish sanctuary cities and the ad accuses those cities of sheltering dangerous criminals. This ad is sponsored by One Nation,[1] a special interst group that supports Republicans. While this may be an outside group supporting Marshalland Moran, the two have not objected to these ads, which is a kind of approval of them.  

It seems that Republicans can say what ever they want and the truth is not a necessity at all. Everything they are saying about immigration and sanctuary cities is a lie. Those cities are not supporting criminals, just people who have had trouble getting legal status to move to this country. Punishing an American system for this is ridiculous and a violation of local government’s rights.

Lately they have put out an ad that praises the two for overturning former President Barack Obama’s mandates. What that really means is supporting Prresident Trump’s efforts to take away health insurance and health care for millions of working class citizens. Again they are clever at twisting the truth.

By SJ Otto

We need Sarah Lopez for CountyCommission, so we can get Michael O'Donnell off the commission.

In the last election for county commissioner I backed Lacy Cruz. She was a progressive Democrat and she won against, Richard Ranzau, an arch conservative. Now we have another chance to elect a progressive Democrat, Sarah Lopez.  She is running against O'Donnell, a very young conservative who is trying to rise up through the latter of shame—the scum circuit.

O'Donnell was originally in the Kansas Senate, representing the 25th District from 2013 until 2017. He was an accomplice to our terrible governor Sam Brownback and his crimes against the people, including rejecting healt care expansion. Not satisfied to wreck havoc in the senate, he then dislodged a respectable democrat to sit on the Sedgwick County Commission.

On top of being a conservative, O’Donnell was slso a crook, even though a jury found him not guilty. From Kansas.com:

“After deliberating for about four hours, a federal jury on Monday acquitted Sedgwick County Commissioner Michael O’Donnell of 21 counts of wire fraud connected to his campaign spending — but were deadlocked on five other charges.

O’Donnell and his family shed tears as a court staff member read the “not guilty” verdicts aloud shortly after 2 p.m.”

So he beat the rap. But for many of us, he is still a crook. He is just a successful crook who got away with it.

So once again we have a chance to replace this crook with a progressive Democrat Sarah Lopez. So vote for her, help on her campaign, and work for her in any way you can. This is one more example of how we can try to change this system.

Click here for her official web site and here for her Facebook page.

By SJ Otto

It was so fast. it was hard to really digest this guy’s life. He had a good one. It was hard to lose this guy. And he died so unexpectedly we all just didn’t expect this to happen.

 From Yahoo News:

Chadwick Boseman, who reigned onscreen as Marvel’s noble Black Panther, died at his Los Angeles home Friday of cancer at age 43, surrounded by his wife, singer Taylor Simone Ledward, and relatives.

Calling him “a true fighter,” Boseman’s family revealed the actor was diagnosed with colon cancer four years ago. He never made his diagnosis public, even after photos of the gaunt-looking actor appeared on social media. 

For the rest click here.

 By SJ Otto

We are seeing more and more ads and news that makes a case against putting Donald Trump back in the White House. Below is an ad put out by the Democrats, presenting Republicans who don’t want to see Trump re-elected.

This kind of advertising is not new. I remember Democrats for Richard Nixon when he ran against George McGovern in 1972. Usually this is a bad sign because a candidate does not have the full backing of his/her party. McGovern was too far left for many Democrats and Trump is both too far right and he is just obnoxious.  

Then there is this tidbit of information:

Chris Wallace finally called out Lara Trump for Donald Trump IGNORING coronavirus at RNC.

To tell Trump's family to stop spouting dangerous conspiracy theories that put lives at risk, sign herehttp://odaction.com/btctrumpfamilylies

Video by

Occupy Democrats

host

Brian Tyler Cohen

By SJ Otto

Back in the 1970s we had this president, Richard Nixon. While he was in office, I didn’t always agree with him. But it took a few years, many of them after he left office that I realized just how awful he really was. As the years went on, I learned more about politics and the more I learned the more I hated the guy.

He was the closest thing to a Nazi I could remember at the time. He wanted “no knock” policies to kick down the doors of suspected drug dealers. He was adamantly against legalizing pot. He kept coming up with laws designed to curb the fourth amendment.

Then there were his attacks on the president of Chile, Salvador Allende. Allende was a socialist and a Marxist, the first elected in Latin America. I was a big fan of his. He seemed very democratic and a Marxist at the same time. It almost seemed to me that Nixon hated a democratic Marxist more than a non-democratic Marxist as Fidel Castro. Castro hated Nixon enough that he always printed his name with a swastika rather than the “x” in the middle of his name, any time there was a story about him in the Cuban newspaper Granma. It would take many years later for me to realize just how bad his overall foreign policy was.

 Nixon hated the young and the youth movement. He shrugged of the four young people killed at Kent State University, in Ohio. He also hated the left. Another famous writer I have always admired, Hunter S, Thompson, also hated Nixon. A writer friend of mine, Tim Pouncey, once said "You and Thompson have made a career out of hating Richard Nixon."

So why am I interested in Nixon? That is because in this day and age, we have a president who is actually worse than Nixon. If we consider the long range affects of a man’s career, former President Ronald Reagan caused this country more damage than any other politician in my life time. He pushed this nation to the far right and it never recovered.

But for just plain meanness, for out right biased treatment of the USpeople, for just plain spite against leftist opinion, President Donald Trump now wins. He is hateful, without any regrets. He attacks leftwing persons relentlessly. He is almost an outright racist. He is even further to the right than Nixon. His foreign policy is just as bad. Just last year he spoke of removing socialism from all of Latin America.

“The days of socialism and communism are numbered, not only in Venezuela, but in Nicaragua and Cuba as well," Trump told a crowd gathered in Miami.

For leftists as myself, that is as close as he can come to a declaration of war.

Just recently Trump refused to meet with Jacob Blake’s family. He clearly treats the “Black Lives Matter” movement as un-American and his mortal enemy. He has praised his right-wing thugs that have tried to confront and stop recent protesters over the loss of black lives. He has made no effort to try and pull this country together. Nixon at least, made flimsy efforts to look as if he cared about all Americans, even if those were hollow gestures. Trump does not even make hollow gestures. He is for the far right and he makes no bones about it. He is the most divisive president in the last 60 years. He is a man of the right and he has no interest at all in healing the rift between the American right and left. He has never made any effort to bring this country together. No president in the 60 years has gone out of his way to avoid bringing this country’s people together. For Trump, there is no healing. There is no effort to pull the American people together. Trump is for his people and his people only. He has made it very clear that he has no need for or interest in those people who are not aligned with him and his agenda. It is as if this country is in a state of civil war and he has made it clear whose side he is on.

So as people try to tell me that there is no real difference between Joe Biden and Trump, I say there is just one difference and it is a big one. Trump is a despicable human being who clearly hates about half the people in this country. He doesn’t just disagree with them, he HATES them!! Biden is kind of an ass hole, and I dislike him for many reasons. But he doesn’t treat me as an enemy of the state. He doesn’t hate me. He may disagree with me and laugh at my concerns? And I hate it when some one laughs at things I feel I need. But Trump is hateful towards me and that is the difference.    

 Pix by Trump is sounding a lot like Nixon.

 FromArtsy Fartsy:

This Monday is Labor Day. It is the first holiday of the fall, season. It is a minor holiday. People do celebrate it. They go to the lake, in their boats. People go on picnics. I call this holiday a fake labor holiday. Originally May 1 was our labor holiday. But as Marxist regimes took up that day as THEIR labor holiday, leaders in the US needed a different labor holiday. So they picked on in the fall. While the day was originally supposed to honor the labor movement, it has been used to de-politicize the day. The majority of the US is anti-labor union, so that part of the holiday has been taken away.

So what will I do to honor this great day? Probably nothing. Since I‘m retired, I don’t work anymore. I can go to the park, lake, swimming pool, or river, or anywhere else I want to go to enjoy the outdoors. So there is really nothing special about this day.

I celebrate the labor movement on May Day, May 1, the original day for celebrating labor. And that day is political. Labor Day should be political. Workers should have the right to join a labor union if they want. That is a right that working people in the US have been loosing out on for many years. That is a major reason that working wages have lagged so far behind all the other economic indicators. The economy comes back and yet wages never go up. As labor unions lose their power, working people keep losing ground. That is what our corporate masters want. And that is what they are getting.

Until working people wake up and demand their rights, they will continue to lose ground and the power of their wages will disappear.

So I will ignore this day. I might drink a beer or glass of wine. I may go to Lake Afton or the Walnut River to swim. That is about it.

Here is my beer can and wine glass. 

Once again we look at the world of physical science- 

By SJ Otto

When I was a little kid I began reading about outer space and the planets. I read some fiction and lots of non-fiction books about planets. One interest I always had was to find life on planets. The best place to look for life was on Mars. The second best was Venus. I found lots of fiction that portrayed intelligent beings from both Mars and Venus.

Today we know that Mars may have microbes living underground in some parts of the planet but as much as us Earthlings have explored Mars, we still don’t know if there is any life there. We do know that there is no intelligent life—that is to say no Martians orpeople. And Venus may have some microbes in its clouds, but not on the surface. That surface is a furnace of almost 900 degrees. Not much chance of any life on the surface and there is definitely no intelligent life, no Venusians and no people. Scientists tell us there are no intelligent beings anywhere in our solar system.

However there is the possibility that life can be found on some of the gas giant’s moons. The gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune have many moons. Those planets themselves are not likely to have any life themselves, but some of the moons are likely to have oceans under their surface.  That is where it is possible to find life.

Here we have a comparison of the Earth to the moons discussed in this article.

The life that may be there is either microbes or simple things, such as worms or fish. While there are no intelligent life forms in these oceans, finding any kind of life will tell us if we can expect to find life elsewhere in the universe.

FromPNAS,by Adam Mann”

“Sometime in the early 2030s, a washing machine-sized robot could be carefully descending toward the icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Armed with cameras, a spectrometer, a microscope, and a scoop, the vehicle would be lowered from a UFO-like sky crane similar to the one that delivered the Curiosity rover to Mars. As the robot nears the frozen ground, its autonomous navigation system may have to take evasive action. “Maybe the surface is nice and flat and smooth,” says Curt Niebur, a program scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) headquarters in Washington, DC. “But maybe it’s covered in penitentes, which are literally six-foot-tall ice spikes.”

So scientists are very interested in Europa, a moon that appears to be made largely of water. The moon is now believed to have a rock core, covered by an ocean and that is covered by a sheet of ice.

Also:

“Europa is thought to have a vast liquid water ocean beneath its frozen crust, a potentially perfect place to find extraterrestrial organisms. The Jovian moon is merely one of many similar locations. In recent decades, exploratory spacecraft have revealed that our solar system is chock full of icy ocean worlds. Along with Europa, there are Saturn’s moons, the geyser-spewing Enceladus, and the methane-filled Titan. Then there's Neptune’s cryovolcanic Triton and the distant dwarf planet Pluto, just to name a few. “You throw a stone, and you find another ocean world,” says planetary scientist Francis Nimmo of the University of California, Santa Cruz. “They’re all over the place.”

I might have to weight as much as 30 years to finally know if there is life beyond the Earth. I may not live that long. But I hope I do, since I would really like to find out if there is life beyond the earth. And if here is life beyond the earth, there is likely to be life beyond our Solar System and maybe there is intelligent life.

Again from PNAS:

“Scientists have yet to understand these strange ice balls’ surface processes or internal compositions entirely, and NASA and other space agencies are interested in further investigating their secrets. Last year, NASA started putting together an Ocean Worlds program; the earliest targets will be Europa, Enceladus, and Titan, which have the best evidence for liquids on or near their surfaces. Within a couple of decades, these places might tell us if life is widespread in our solar system, and perhaps elsewhere.

“We know that physics works beyond Earth; we know that chemistry works beyond Earth. We know that geology works,” says Hand. “But we have yet to determine whether or not biology works beyond Earth. These liquid water environments in our cosmic backyard present the opportunity to answer that question.”

So the little green men and such forth that I imagined don’t really exist here in our Solar System. But even a bacteria or a worm would bring me interest. That would tell us we are not alone in the Universe. For me that is a lot.

At one time people imagined all kinds of intelligent beings or even people on Mars and Venus. Here is an example of a two headed Martian and two small venetians from a Twilight Zone episode. That show had a few episodes with Martians and venetians. This episode was The Twilight Zone Episode 55: Mr. Dingle, the Strong - Midnite Reviews.

By SJ Otto

Barbara Bollier is a centrist Democrat running for a USsenate seat formerly held by

Republican Pat Roberts. Roger Marshall, her opponent, won a Republican primary contest where all the candidates bragged of being hard core conservatives. All of them chanted the mantra: “Pro God, Pro Gun, Pro life.” The Republicans all gave us the choice between ultra conservative policies and Uh…. ultra conservative policies.

Normally I don’t endorse centrist Democrats. They tend to work against us. But Bollier is running against an ultra rightist and many of us have had enough of such dogged political redundancy. This simple fact is that we could us some change, even if it is just moderate change. 

Also, according to Morning Consult, Bollier actually has a chance of winning that seat. That publication said:

“But Marshall’s Democratic opponent, state Sen. Barbara Bollier, a physician and former Republican who switched parties in 2018, said they shouldn’t be so sure. The primary’s outcome, she argues, is irrelevant to her chances of becoming the first Senate Democrat to represent the SunflowerState since 1939. 

In a Tuesday interview before results came in, Bollier shook off the notion that Kelly’s victory was more the result of Kobach’s weaknesses than the governor’s strengths, and cast her candidacy as an extension of Kelly’s. Bollier is running against what she described as a Republican Party that is as ideologically extreme as Sam Brownback, the state’s unpopular former governor, and as boorish as President Donald Trump.”

Morning Consult also said that Trump is very popular in Kansas. The publication said that Trump has a lead of 12 percentage points in the state. So seeing any Democrat take the Senate seat could be an overall advantage in a state that is glued to the ultra right policies of the Republican Party and supporting one of the most rightwing and repulsive presidents ever.

Usually we only endorse progressives. But a win for Bollier would be a kick in the pants for a state that is dominated by the most regressive elements of USpolicy.

It is still too early to know if Bollier can win. In one of the last Senate elections, 2014, polls showed the ultra right Republican candidate being behind Independent Greg Orman. The Democratic nominee, Chad Taylor, withdrew from the race so that Orman had a chance to win. Taylorfigured he had no chance of winning. Orman stayed ahead in the polls, but the Republicans pulled out all their dirty tricks and they won.

So we can’t be sure of a win, even if Bollier stays ahead in the polls. The Republicans here in Kansasare full of dirty tricks and they love to use lies and miss leading ads to miss lead the voting public here. 

Just recently Republicans ran ads portraying Bollier as a radical leftist despite her campaigns in which she has focused on Republicans voting for her and portraying herself as a centrist—in the middle. For example “Anti-Barbara Bollier Web Ad #1 - 2020 Kansas USSenate NRSC PAC, September 3 - "Say No to the Mob."

Here we see Republicans using the same old lies, that all Democrats are the same, they are far to the left and they encourage rioting. This ad is full of bold face lies. It has nothing to do with Bollier. It is all ridiculous

So we will endorse a centrist here in Kansas. There really were no serious campaigns to put up a progressive in this race. And it is doubtful that a progressive could actually win this race.

By SJ Otto

“You could be forgiven for forgetting the National Day of Patriotic Devotion—technically, it happened before it was ever declared. Donald Trump established it with a stroke of a pen sometime after his inauguration; the official proclamation appeared Monday in the Federal Register.  


That bit isn’t all that unusual. Presidents christen National Days Of Things all the time. President Barack Obama, for example, proclaimed the day of his own inauguration in 2009 a “National Day of Renewal and Reconciliation,” calling “upon all of our citizens to serve one another and the common purpose of remaking this Nation for our new century.” He annually declared September 11 to be “Patriot Day.” But “Patriotic Devotion” strikes a different note—flowery, vaguely compulsory.”

I can still remember the shock of being hit by those two plains. The TV showed nothing but news about it for almost a week. But as shocking as it was, most of this country’s people misread the attacks. They took it as a personal attach on them and their country. I just saw an ad for theWounded Warrior Project.He said he remembered 9/11 and a day later he joined the military. He said he didn’t think about it at all, he just did it. The problem is that all of those kinds of people went to get back at our enemies. But they really ended up defending the great and mighty capitalist empire of the United States. That isn’t defense. Since that time our commander and chief, the former President George W. Bush, attacked Afghanistan and then conquered it. There was nothing defensive about it. We conquered some one else’s country and we are still occupying it today.

What did Americans learn about 9/11? It is OK to conquer someone else’s country and take THEIR freedom away if it makes us all feel safer. We are the world’s top terrorists.

By now, we have lots of young people who were born after 9/11. Year after year we will eventually have a holiday (it s not a real holiday) that is poorly remembered. Even today we can expect the reaction to this so called holiday to be poorly understood. All it has done is help the imperialist system to use the attacks as an excuse to rob and plunder others.

 

Another important event that happened on this day, 9/11 was that in Chile there was a coup against the presidency of Salvador Allende. He was the first Marxist ever elected in the Western hemisphere.

Allende was the first Marxist I learned from in the 1970s. I followed his career and when he was overthrown by the brute Augusto Pinochet, I was deeply disappointed. Allende convinced me that socialism can be democratic. Allende was my introduction to socialism.

Here is his final speech to his countrymen right before he was killed in the coup:

 

Salvador Allende's Last Speech (English translation)

 

Santiago de Chile, 11 September 1973, 9:10 A.M.
This will surely be my last opportunity to address you. The Air Force has bombed the antennas of Radio Magallanes. My words have neither bitterness nor deception. They should stand as a moral castigation of those who have been traitors to their oaths: Chilean soldiers, titular commanders-in-chief, Admiral Merino, who has designated himself commander of the Navy, even more señor Mendoza, the cringing general who only yesterday manifested his fidelity and loyalty to the Government, and who also has named himself Director General of the Carabineros. In the face of these deeds it only falls to me to say to the workers: I shall not resign!
Standing at a historic point, I will repay with my life the loyalty of the people. And I say to you that I am certain that the seed we have surrendered into the worthy conscience of thousands and thousands of Chileans, will not be able to be reaped at one stroke. They have the power, they can make us their vassals, but not stop the social processes, neither by crime nor by force. History is ours and is made by the people.
Workers of my Nation: I want to thank you for the loyalty you have always had, the confidence you placed in a man who only was the interperter of great yearnings for justice, who pledged his word to respect the Constitution and the law, and who did so. In this final moment, the last in which I will be able to address myself to you, I want you to take advantage of the lesson: foreign capital, imperialism, united with reaction, created the climate for the Armed Forces to break their tradition, that which they were taught by general Schneider which was reaffirmed by commander Araya, victims of the same social sector that today will be be expecting with an alien hand to reconquer the power to continue defending their profits and their privileges.
I address myself to you, above all to the modest woman of our land, to the campesina who believed in us, the mother who knew of our concern for the children. I address myself to the professionals of the Nation, to the patriotic professionals who continued working against the sedition overseen by their professional academies, classist academies that also defended the advantages of a capitalist society.
I address myself to the youth, to those who sang and who brought their happiness and their spirit to the fight. I address myself to the man of Chile, to the worker, to the campesino, to the intellectual, to those who will be percecuted, because in our country fascism has now been present for several hours; in the terrorist assassinations, blowing up the bridges, cutting the railways, destroying the oil and gas pipelines, in the face of the silence of those who had the obligation to behave.

They are in jeopardy. History will judge them.
Radio Magallanes will surely be silenced and the tranquil metal of my voice will no longer reach you. It is not important. You will continue to hear it. I will always be together with you. At least my memory will be that of an upright man who was loyal to the Nation.
The people ought to defend themselves, but not sacrifice themselves. The people ought not let themselves be subdued or persecuted, but neither should they humble themselves.
Workers of my Nation, I have faith in Chile and its destiny. Other men will go beyond this gray and bitter moment when treason tries to impose itself upon us. Continue to know that, much sooner than later, we will reopen the great promenades down which free men pass, to construct a better society.
Long live Chile! Long live the people! Long live the workers!
These are my last words and I have certainty that my sacrifice will not be in vain, I have certainty that, at the least, I will be a moral lesson to castigate felony, cowardice, and treason.

 Ever since watching my first episode of Star Trek I wanted to see the day come when we can travel to the stars. We may never have the ability to travel at the leisure we see on that TV show. However we may be able to at least travel to nearby stars. Before people can go there, we will probably send probes. Sending people to the stars may be a few centuries away. However, sending a probe to Alpha Centauri, part of a three star system that is the closest to Earth, may be just a few years away. Alpha Centauri is a little over 4 light years away. When I was a kid, they told us traveling to the stars was impossible. They are too far away. With today’s technology, our rockets would take over 40,000 years. But with these new plans, the probe will take 20 years. That is much better. So from Space.com:

-SJ Otto

The famed cosmologist, along with a group of scientists and billionaire investor Yuri Milner, unveiled an ambitious new $100 million project today (April 12) called Breakthrough Starshot, which aims to build the prototype for a tiny, light-propelled robotic spacecraft that could visit the nearby star Alpha Centauri after a journey of just 20 years.

"The limit that confronts us now is the great void between us and the stars, but now we can transcend it," Hawking said today during a news conference here at One World Observatory. [Stephen Hawking: 'Transcending Our Limits' With Breakthrough Starshot (Video)]

"With light beams, light sails and the lightest spacecraft ever built, we can launch a mission to Alpha Centauri within a generation," he added. "Today, we commit to this next great leap into the cosmos. Because we are human, and our nature is to fly."

The Starshot spacecraft will consist of a wafer-size chip attached to a super-thin sail. This paired duo will be launched to space aboard a mothership, and then propelled to the stars by laser light beamed from a high-altitude facility here on Earth.

For the rest click here.

By SJ Otto

In the Western US states, we are seeing the worst fires in years. The most logical explanation for fires that are larger and more intense are simple—climate change.

According to National Geographic:

“Frequent fires are part of California’s natural state. Many of its ecosystems, from the chaparral of Southern California to the Northern pine forests, evolved to burn frequently. But since the 1980s, the size and ferocity of the fires that sweep across the state have trended upward: Fifteen of the 20 largest fires in Californiahistory have occurred since 2000. And since the 1970s, the amount of area burned in the state has increased by a factor of five.”

And some elected officials can see the obvious:

According to NBC:

“As the Bay Area and other parts of Californiadeal with the devastating effects of raging wildfires, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday attacked the idea that the fires are natural in any way. He said the cause is climate change and said anyone who thinks differently is in denial.

"The debate is over around climate change," Newsom said as he toured a burn area in Northern California. "Just come to the state of California. Observe it with your own eyes. It’s not an intellectual debate. It’s not even debatable any longer."

He also said he's "exhausted that we have to continue to bait this issue."

"This is a climate damn emergency," he said. "This is real."

Craig Clements, the director of San JoseStateUniversity's WildfireResearchCenter, said Newsom is essentially correct.”

Mr. Newsom is not alone. Many of us feel that the fires are caused, at least partially, from climate change. In the East we see hurricanes and people in such places as New Orleans are bracing for massive flooding. From CNN:

“Hurricane warnings have now been issued from Morgan City, Louisiana, east to Ocean Springs, Mississippi, including New Orleans, Lake Pontchartrain and LakeMaurepas. Sally continues to strengthen across the Gulf of Mexicowith sustained winds of 60 mph.

Storm surges of up to 7 to 11 feet are possible near the center of the storm and just east of where landfall is expected. Along with storm surge, extreme rainfall amounts of over a foot are expected in some locations between southeast Louisiana and the western Florida panhandle.

Tropical Storm Sally is the 18th named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, the earliest 18th-named storm on record. On Saturday, the storm brought heavy rain and gusty winds to south Floridaas it moved into the Gulf of Mexico.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Saturday evening ahead of Sally's arrival, and on Sunday, he said he had spoken with President Donald Trump and will submit a pre-landfall federal declaration request.”

So what good does it do to speak to a president who says he doesn’t believe in climate change? We have massive fires in the West, possible massive flooding coming to South eastern states and our main elected leader says there is no climate change. From The BBC:

“US President Donald Trump has dismissed concerns over climate change on a visit to fire-ravaged California, telling an official "I don't think science knows" about global warming.

"It'll start getting cooler, you just watch," Mr Trump said after he was urged not to "ignore the science".

Blazes in several states have burned vast areas of land and killed at least 36 people since early August.

Scientists say human activities have driven up global temperatures.

But Mr Trump has blamed poor forest management for the fires that have burned almost 2 million hectares (5 million acres) of land in California, Oregon and Washington state.

During his visit to the US West Coast, Mr Trump - who has often denied climate change - repeated his argument on forest management as he met Californian officials involved in the battle against the wildfires.”

Trump comes from a background of conservatives and industrialists who are climate change deniers. People who are educated should know that climate change is basically real. There are a few working class people who are not well educated and may believe that climate change is a hoax. More likely, leaders such as Trump know that climate change is real. They don’t want to be held responsible for the damage done by the companies they own or control. So they simply deny it. They call it a hoax. There are some conservative pundits who help disseminate such ideas. There are a few people who are so gullible that they actually believe there is no climate change. But to actually believe that climate change does not exist when there is so much evidence and it is so obvious that weather conditions areaccelerating, (more flooding, more fires, and more extreme weather).

We have a very heated elections coming and this shows one reason we need to all get out and vote the idiot Trump out of office. If he really does know that climate change is real, then he is lying to the American people. It is out right embarrassing that our leader goes to places, such as Europe, and pulls out of climate agreements that would eventually help the world deal with this climate problem. Just as Trump has ditched agreements with Iran, he has ditched agreements with climate change.

Pix from Wildfires on West Coast leave at least 35 dead, evacuees describe having 'lost everything' | Fox News.

By SJ Otto

Diane Wahto was a good friend of mine (Steve Otto) and my wife’s (Cam Gentry). We were all involved in the politics of both the pro-choice forces, she was a peace activists and she was a Democrat. Wahto died September 16, 2020, at the age of 80 of complications following a recent stroke.

The three of us met after the Summer of Mercy. Wahto, me and my wife, were involved in the pro-choice group called Freedom of Choice Action League, (FOCAL). This group was tired of the docile actions of the other pro-choice action group then called Pro-choice Action League, (PCAL). PCAL used very timid actions to protect the three abortion clinics that were in service during the so called Summer of Mercy.  That Summer anti-abortion groups, from all over the country flooded into the town of Wichita, to try and close down all three of the city’s abortion clinics.

While I, along with my wife, were not a part of the Summer of Mercy, Wahto was. My wife and I were not living in Wichita at the time. We moved here about one year after the Summer of Mercy.

My wife and I wasted no time in joining up with FOCAL. We all wanted to defend the abortion clinics. We mostly worked at a clinic at 700 North Market. Occasionally we worked at a clinic at East Central Street.

A few years later FOCAL changed and most of us broke off to form the pro-choice action group ZAP. The letters stood for nothing. It just sounded like what we did to the antis (anti-abortionist).

Wahto had told me that she went through rehab for alcoholism years earlier.

“I used to get drunk and watch Johnny Carson,” she said. “The drunker I got, the funnier he got.”

She quit drinking for a while, but went back to drinking later. She was able to control her drinking, she did not have problems after that. We all went out to the bars and pubs and she drank martinis but I never saw her drunk. One thing I learned from Wahto is that the gin in the martini flavors the olives, not the other way around. I have learned to drink martinis thanks to Wahto.

I always felt we were similar in our experiences. She was older than me. But we had a lot in common. We are both writers. We both took an interest in poetry and politics. We both belonged to the local peace group, The Peace and Social Justice Center of South Central Kansas.  Her passing leaves me a lot to think about. I will miss her. 

Pix by Blue Cedar Pres.

By SJ Otto

As the various elections heat up across the country, here in Kansas we have a heated race between BarbaraBollier and Roger Marshall for senate. Marshallis a typical far right wing Republican and Bollier is a centrist. Normally I give little support to a centrist. But in Kansas that maybe the only way to get a Democrat elected in this right-wing redneck strong hold.

I have been getting a lot of slick mail in campaign propaganda pieces. They all follow a basic trend. Of course we are told that Bollier is actually an extremist due to her support of abortion rights.  She has not denied that she supported “late term abortions.” But what does that actually mean? According to these slick mailers she “voted against commonsense legislation to ban abortion after 21 weeks.”

According to Guttmacher:

“In its landmark 1973 abortion cases, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized a constitutional right to abortion, but held that states could prohibit abortion after fetal viability—the point at which a fetus can sustain life outside the womb—if their policies met certain requirements. Since then, the Supreme Court has consistently reaffirmed the fundamental right to abortion while also allowing new limits on a woman’s ability to obtain one. The composition of the Court became more conservative after the appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, and more states are expected to challenge the protections of Roe v. Wade by limiting abortion at earlier stages of pregnancy.

The current U.S. Supreme Court standard holds that states may prohibit abortion after fetal viability so long as there are exceptions for the life and health (both physical and mental) of the woman. Under this legal standard, viability—which can range from 24 to 28 weeks after the start of the woman’s last menstrual period (LMP) —must be determined on an individual basis, and determinations of both fetal viability and the woman’s health are at the discretion of the patient’s physician. In addition, states may not require that additional physicians confirm an attending physician’s judgment that the woman’s life or health is at risk in cases of medical emergency.”

So just how extreme is it to defend 21 weeks? It is not extreme at all. On TV Bollier is accused of supporting gun laws that allow a criminal of being denied a right to own a gun. Supposedly anyone who is considered dangerous, under this supposed law, must prove they are fit to own a gun.  But who really believes a dangerous criminal is protected under the second amendment?

Then there is the accusation in both print and TV ads that Marshall is in (health care) it for the money. Of course that is true. According to Marshal’s slick ads:

“By protecting health care

Fighting to protect your family’s health care

Health care that’s more affordable and accessible."     

And on a similar flyer:

"More Government –Run health care

X Higher Costs

X Fewer Options

Your Control Your family’s Care

✔More Affordable Care

✔Patient-Centered Plans"

Also on that flyer: "Health Care That’s More affordable, Greater Access to quality care, Allows You To keep your doctor,Patient Centered Plans for Your Family."

Of course everything Marshallsays is a lie. It is true he believes in keeping the doctor of a person’s choice. The rest is a bold face lie. As with the other Republicans, he only protects the health care of the wealthy can upper class working people. The poor and working poor are kept from getting health care. He and Trump have taken away health care from millions of Americans. He is a liar and he is the enemy of working people.

He needs to be exposed for the charlatan he is.

By SJ Otto

Yesterday, Saturday, I attended a rally called “A Demonstration for Justice,” at

Wichita’s Century II. This was intended to be a part of the nation wide protests going on across the US. All across this country people have been marching in protest and indignation for the unnecessary deaths of Breonna Taylor, shot to death by police with a “no-knock warrant.”Those kinds of warrants were developed mostly under then President Richard Nixon as a part of the on-going war on drugs. There use accelerated under President Ronald Reagan. The no-knock warrant stops a suspected drug peddler or user of knowing that the police are after him/her. The problem is that it can lead to the death of innocent people, when police have the wrong address or some other similar problem.

Since the time of Nixon there have been political leaders who are so intent on getting at drug dealers they just don’t care if an innocent person dies.

Saturday’s march was small, less than 50 people. But our activists were part of a nationwide movement of marchers. While our march was small, others in USmajor cities were not. For example see these excerpts:

Portland, Oregon-

“Three separate protests of groups with vastly different ideologies took place in relatively close proximity to each other around noon Saturday.

The far-right group Proud Boys held a rally at DeltaParkin North Portland to support President Donald Trump and the police and condemn anti-fascists that the group accuses of “domestic terrorism.”

Anti-fascist groups held a rally about 3 miles away at PeninsulaPark. A third rally, this one from Black Lives Matter supporters, was planned for Historic Vanport.

The history between the groups that often spills into violence spurred Gov. Kate Brown to use her emergency authority to appoint Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese and Oregon State Police Superintendent Travis Hampton joint incident commanders of Portland for a 48-hour period between Saturday and Sunday……..”

Hartford Connecticut-

“Black Lives Matter and Justice for Breonna Taylor protest through Hartford, organized by Black Lives Matter 860…..”

Atlanta Georgia-

“Tear Gas Deployed In AtlantaDuring Breonna Taylor Protests

Demonstrators took to the streets in downtown Atlanta on Wednesday night to voice anger over a Kentucky grand jury's decision not to charge three Louisvillepolice officers directly in the killing of 26-year-old Breonna Taylor in March…..”

San Diego California-

“Three Arrests Made At Downtown Protest Friday

— 10:42 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020

Protests in response to the grand jury decision regarding the Breonna Taylor case continued throughout the U.S. for a third night, including in San Diego.

Three arrests were made as protestors gathered in downtown San Diego Friday night. In a tweet posted at 7:36 p.m., the San Diego Police Department said the crowd was 40 to 50 people. Later at 10:40 p.m., the department tweeted that arrests had been made at B St. and Columbia St…..”

 By SJ Otto

The fist debate is over and commentators are calling it one of the worst debates in the history of debates. That may be true. But this is about who will win. President Donald Trump was aggressive. He shot out a lot of antidotes and statistics, many of which are probably not true. For trump this was about proving to his base that he could out yell and out chew his opponent. He did that.

For the intelligent voter Trump only proved what an idiot he is. But his supporters are just like him. They are brutish and care little about the facts. They only care about seeing Trump chew up Joe Biden and he did a lot of that.

After the debate, commentators were calling this debate shameful, almost embarrassing. One commentator said that people from other countries, watching this, maybe dumbfounded.

The problem is that Trump has pulled the civility level to an all time low from day one of his presidency. The people that supported him wanted someone outside the system. I remember when NPR was talking to a Trump supporter who said: “He talks just like I do.” What does that guy talk like? Who are these people who really like Trump? They like him enough to go to his rallies and not wear masks. They stand close together and ignore all those social distancing rules.

For those people I’m sure Trump did great. For those who wanted Joe Biden to do well, many were probably satisfied with his performance, although I though he wasn’t that good. The big question for Biden is how to deal with an opponent who doesn’t follow the normal rules. He is a bully and that is what we saw tonight.

Biden called Trump “a liar” and “a clown.” A lot of people found those kind of tactic in bad taste. But what else could he do. Trump is a clown and a liar.

Some high lights of the debate:

Trump keeps hammering on a vaccine by the election.

Trump accused Biden of ignoring other disease epidemics while he was vice president.

Biden hit hard on Trump taking away Obamacare (Affordable Care Act) and taking health care away from millions of Americans.

Trump kept trying to tie Biden to Bernie Sanders and socialism. He accused all the Democratic Mayors of such cities as Portland as being against law enforcement. Biden accused Trump of pouring gas on the fire.

The narrator asked Trump if he would condemn the ultra-right groups as he did against groups on the left. He really didn’t do that. He kept accusing the left of causing the problems. Any one on the left will find nothing but contempt from Trump. When I say left, I mean anyone from the center left on leftward. Trump portrays anyone to the left of his party “far-left.”

Trump accused Democrats and anti-racist of being anti-American. He insults anyone who is not part of his racist and red neck agenda. He kept hammering against the radical left. 

Trump talks fast and tried to dominate the debate. His style is real aggressive.

Biden has a hard time getting his points across. He has better statistic and antidotes. But Trump is going faster and trying to ambush him.

Trump accused the moderator of being his real debate opponent and there was some truth to that.

Biden made a good point of defending his son, who was in the military, against Trumps accusations that people in military is losers.

In the past I have gone out of my way to avoid watching these debates. In the past, we knew what each debater would do.

If people are stupid and don’t pay attention to established facts, then Trump is winning the debate. The problem is that this man can say anything and some people are going to believe it. If people in this country are real stupid Trump is going to win this election. He is good at talking and ambushing his opponent. He does not rely on facts though. All the polls have Biden winning. That is good, but the polls had him losing against Hillary Clinton. We should take nothing for granted in this election.

Pix by The soft bigotry of Trump's low expectations may give Biden a debate edge.

By SJ Otto

For those who do not live in Kansas- here is some information on a Republican candidate who is actually going to debate his rival.

Wow! I got to see this. Can Ron Estes really debate a candidate? REALLY?! On his own? I gotta see that, Oct. 6, 6:30pm. I always had the impression that the Republicans felt they owed this bozo a cushy seat, so they gave him a seat in a Republican district were all he has to do is show up. It is a Republican district so he should not have to actually do any real work to get and keep this seat. In his first election bid, he didn't do any campaigning. His party ran deceptive ads lying about his opponent. He just figured he'd win because he was the Republican candidate. He almost lost, but he did win. He campaigned in the next election and he won by a landslide. To win the debate will be easy, for Laura Lombard. Winning the election for her is another matter. There are lots of Republicans who just vote Republican. Democrat Lombard has to win over some Republicans who don't even pay attention to the candidates. They just vote Republican. She has her work cut out for her, while Ron will just consider this a cake walk. He is a dim witted politician who can win just because he belongs to the right party. He is a lackluster slacker who can win this election because he is a party hack. Ron Estes: the ultimate slacker and the ultimate dumb ass.